Janine Antoni

here-ing, 2020-2023

Work in Progress.

To read more about the project click here.

Outer ear dimensions: 250ft x 130ft. 

Instructions for getting to here-ing: Located at the Suzanne Ecke McColl Nature Reserve (adjacent to the Roth Trailhead)

From I-40, take East 1600 Road north to the parking lot.

In partnership with Sheena Parsons and Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research, Joey Orr and The Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, Keith Van de Riet from KU Designbuild, Suzan Hampton (Research Assistant) from the University of Kansas, and Dr. Melinda Adams of San Carlos Apache Tribe.

In here-ing, Antoni attempts to repair our relationship to the land by giving a former Kansas prairie a gentle push toward a healthier grassland while inviting people to walk a labyrinth in the shape of the anatomy of the human ear. The path of the labyrinth is made exclusively through walking. As we draw the ear with our steps, we listen more deeply. We enter our body symbolically and metaphorically as the landscape enters us.

At the start of the path lie two large limestone boulders. Carved into the stone is a finger labyrinth which gives the opportunity to traverse with our finger the path through which we hear, and to have an overview of the path we’re about to walk. Through bodily memory, we can orient ourselves in space.

Antoni believes that our alienated relationship to our own bodies has contributed to our destruction of the environment. Our culture treats the body as a mere vehicle to carry around our thinking mind. If we are willing to exploit our bodies for the sake of our goals and desires, it is no great leap to exploit the natural world for the same reason. here-ing offers an opportunity to return to the body through intimately relating to the land. In feeling as though we belong to the land, we are propelled to care for the land that we belong to.