Rural Heritage August/September 2025

The earthwork is radially arranged with seven triangular patches of wildflowers and native grasses with a central gathering place in the center. On the outside, is a 400-foot by 6-foot hugelkultur which, in simplest terms, is a giant raised bed encircling the prairie beds.

animals as co workers. I'd grown up around horses, but I never really explicitly thought about them as coworkers. And that led me to draft animal power. So after a couple years of research, I took classes at Tillers. I took all of their draft animal offerings and in the span of like six or eight months. And then after my last class, I got Clark and Sparky about six weeks later.” Ruth is an assistant professor of video in the Wonsook Kim School of art at ISU and explained the project falls under socially engaged art. “When I think about what I do as an interdisciplinary artist, socially engaged art is the umbrella that I sort of house my entire practice under,” Kim continued. “And one of the tenets of socially engaged art is that the process always supersedes the outcome, which, in working with animals, is a really good philosophy to have. Right. It is about the way that we do things

rather than thinking about how perfectly something comes out. You know, if that was the case, why not use a tractor?” “One of the greatest joys in life that I think helps me deal with the world in the state that it is, is how lucky am I to be able to have this experience and to be able to work the land in this way and then also work with such wonderful people like Lori Volden, Emily and Dale Timm. They worked on one of the other earthworks up in Wisconsin. So it is just extremely special that they're here, doing it again on a much bigger scale.” Ruth said she hopes to have much of the installation complete by mid September when the ISU Horticulture Center holds its Autumn Festival Sep. 12–13. “We’d like to have everything planted and in bloom by then,” she said.

August/September 2025

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