Title: "The Sugarcane Labyrinth" 2011

11.22 min

HD Blue Ray and DVD Video

4 channel Surround Sound and Stereo

In French and English

Soundtrack composed and performed by JG Thirlwell

The Sugarcane Labyrinth is a 1,4-acre (approx 4000 sq meter) living sculpture/agricultural Land Practice piece placed on a farm in Theriot, Louisiana, that Anne Katrine Senstad created over 6 months in 2009. The labyrinth was produced in collaboration with farmer, Ronnie Wagespack and Triple K & M Farms.
 
Louisiana’s coastal wetlands are eroding at an alarming rate. Since 1932, coastal Louisiana has lost more than 1,875 square miles (1.2 million acres). The aim of the labyrinth is to demonstrate agricultural sustainability in order to create awareness about farming culture as a vehicle to local and urban sustainability. The choice of sugarcane is based on natural agricultural farming culture in Louisiana, as well as the usage of sugarcane for production of ethanol as transportation-based fuel (bio fuel) and for consumption purposes such as sugar, rum and sugarcane juice production as local industries.
 
The short film shows the experience of the walk through, getting lost in the labyrinth and the physicality of the volume of the labyrinth through the use of split screen. The added extractions of poetry and literature bring the viewer into the labyrinthian experience of the mind as well as visually.
 
As a film about land practice and the phenomenology of space and land, Anne Katrine has included the process of construction and time, as agriculture here represents nature and labor of the land through working with farmers and farmhand through the seasons. By using pink ribbons to construct the architectural formation of the labyrinth, the ribbons represent both mythology and the artists touch. The film is a portrait of The Sugarcane Labyrinth from construction to final completion with the framework being the experience of the piece itself.

Le Labyrinthe de l’Agriculture est une œuvre d’art qui occupe une acre de terres agricoles de la ferme Theriot, en Louisiane. Effectuée en 2009, sa mise en place a requis six mois.

Cette œuvre a pour but de témoigner de la pérennité de l’agriculture et de montrer que la culture des terres est un moyen de parvenir à la durabilité locale et urbaine. Nous avons choisi la canne à sucre, parce qu’il s’agit d’un produit agricole local qui sert non seulement à la fabrication du sucre, mais aussi à celle de l’éthanol, un biocarburant.

Le labyrinthe symbolise aussi le sentiment d’égarement, de perte de repères. C’est à la fois un jeu et un paysage aménagé dans lequel les gens peuvent se promener. Le court métrage montre les pratiques agricoles employées pour réaliser l’œuvre et l’expérience du promeneur qui se perd parmi les tiges hautes et denses des cannes à sucre.

Financement: Fond norvégien de rémunération des artistes visuels

©annekatrinesenstad 2011