Amy Ragus
Natural Encounters: On and off the trails at Fruitlands and Walden
As an extension to her current exhibition at Fruitlands Museum, Amy Ragus will be showing several photo-collages at Thoreau Farm from July 4 – July 22. Ragus’ photo-collages have been called “kaleidoscopic mosaics” that seek to capture particular moods, feelings and movements of the seasons. Having photographed the seasons at Walden for many years, Ragus includes images of Fruitlands in this exhibit. She writes:
The Fruitlands Community lasted from June 1843 to early January 1844. Thoreau’s approximate two years at Walden commenced in 1845. Both experiments had a setting in nature and answered to that setting. In my photographic responses, my intellectual and personal life makes “contact” with the natural surroundings. I have been shooting at Walden for over 20 years. I am informed by Henry David Thoreau’s writings and emphasis on the reciprocity between seasonal changes and the emotions.
Ragus quotes from Thoreau’s Journal:
Our thoughts and sentiments answer to the revolution of the seasons, as two cog-wheels fit into each other. We are conversant with only one point of contact at a time, from which we receive a prompting and impulse and instantly pass into a new season or point of contact. A year is made up of a certain series and number of sensations and thought which have their language in nature. Now I am ice, now I am sorrel. Each experience reduces itself to a mood of the mind. Journal, June,1857
At Thoreau Farm, we promote Thoreau’s ideal of “living deliberately” and believe Ragas has captured this spirit in her work.
Visit Thoreau Farm on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:00 to 4:00. Call or send an e-mail for additional hours. infor@thoreaufarm.org 978-451-0300
You can see the complete exhibit at the Fruitlands Museum from May 20 – August 14, 2012.