A day we feel very small

along the highway 

in the Garden of Adam

under a dark riverside path

in between dark, forgotten spaces

a corridor of trees

What is a greenbelt?  The first greenbelt  reference we found was to the Greenbelt Movement in Kenya, started by Wangari Maathai, and involved the efforts and labor of Kenyan women replacing cash crop trees with native species to combat serious changes in the climate. As we continued to explore the Greenbelt concept, it continued to grow.

We wondered what kind of greenbelt would best sustain life. A real greenbelt shouldn't be artificially limited. It would have to be continuous, reach around the world.  With only a meager understanding of the relevance of connectivity to nature, stories of national parks, private organizations, and The Nature Conservancy, created programs focused on connecting pockets of nature was news to us. Organizations around the world were creating ranges with the purpose in mind of extending nature areas to accommodate migration routes and restore ecosystems.  

We could imagine a Greenbelt Meridian extending completely around the Earth in a great circle. Were we to build such a corridor where should it be located? Anywhere? We learned about the Oklahoma Dust bowl. One of the solutions that was implemented in the 1930's to keep the blowing dirt from being swept off  the dry land was to plant lines of trees called Shelter-belts, as windbreaks, between farmlands. In the 20th century, China is building a great wall of trees to attempt to control desertification of areas adjacent to the Gobi dessert. Reading the warnings spelled out in The Limits to Growth and other philosophical and scientific materials from the past three hundred years, we knew the Greenbelt Meridian concept needed to create a zone free of human influence or contact.

What would a thin strip of land grow into?  What type of animal life would become assimilated into an untended place?  How long could beneficial human indifference be sustained? Would animals enter and learn to sense the environment as home like they do in Chernobyl? After a much greater length of time how would adaptation allow for natural evolution? Will humanity respect this natural land-no-mark, boundaries that not only circles the Earth but also continues in perpetuity?

At the Hardesty Art Center, we imagine the Greenbelt Meridian with a prophetic narrative in the main gallery leading to a present land of being in creative studios, and the future is outside.

woods or dissolving into the scenery

large animal are weaving through.

(artwork by James Gallagher)