The earth’s old wounds
are broken open each spring
by women and men
who spell each other
driving the plows.
Their task to plant and till
is no more or less opportune
then it ever was:
In spite of itself,
each seed buried alive
in the furrows
could flourish or not,
given the right weather,
good enough soil
and the dangerous civility
of diligent blades
cutting down runts and early blooms,
tearing the wild ones called weeds
loose from their ground.
From small scale tribes of totems accompanied by poems my work evolved into room-sized installations incorporating poetry and objects. The objects are changed by time and human use and finally are worked on by me. My process is akin to bricolage, taking ideas and forms from multiple sources and recasting them in an individual vocabulary. The human characters whose stories are given voice through the poems are as much a part of the rural landscape as are native wild flowers, wildlife, trees, rocks and the seasons themselves.
In the St. Louis Post Dispatch Carol Ferring Shepley states, “ Jane Birdsall Lander’s installation, titled “Ghosts from the Center of the Earth,” brings gasps from viewers. The room is beautiful, measured out with repetitive elements that seem both sacred and ordinary. “
While Nancy Rice writing in the New Art Examiner about Girlslife says, “The success of Birdsall Lander’s work lies in her focus on one idea of unique and personal vision, transcending any political commentary that many artists believe is necessary to provide meaning”.