Feb First Friday: Kansas Artist Erin Wiersma

M-AAA is pleased to present Wester: Works on Paper from the Konza Prairie by artist Erin Wiersma of Manhattan, Kansas, for First Friday February 1 from 6:00–8:00 p.m. at 2018 Baltimore in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District.

Wiersma makes her work by dragging pieces of paper—sometimes loose-leaf, sometimes mounted on a tube—along the floor of burned sections of the Konza Prairie. The resulting pieces—part collaboration with nature, part process art, part record of a performance—act as a document of Wiersma’s travels through the fields.

“When I go out to work in the prairie it is a very ceremonious experience. The whole event is sacred and meditative for me,” she says. “I typically pass through a gated section housing a herd of bison that dwell within these lands and graze. At one time Native Americans thrived on the land alongside great herds of bison. Burning was used as a method to herd the bison to specific areas for hunting, and also to rejuvenate the soil. I cannot be on this land without thinking of the people and animals that live here, both past and present.”

In addition to approximately ten works on paper, the exhibition includes a short video of Wiersma making her work out in the field.