FORUM DESIGN AS INQUIRY
Pioneer Mother, which was erected
to celebrate the end of the westward
expansion and the “conquering
peace” it brought to the western U.S.
territories. Our work asserted that,
far from being the end of the white
settlers’ domination of the West,
westward expansion set into motion a
continuing legacy of white supremacy
and structural racism. Our art piece
used the form of rustic trail signs to
orient the viewer in both time and
space to injustices that had occurred
in the area in the decades since The
Pioneer Mother was built. Signposts
surrounded The Pioneer Mother in a
grid pattern that extended out into
the landscape to reference western
WH: Prior to assigning the large-scale installations, I primed the students
with small, cooperative art-making
activities. Small-scale, quick, low-pressure activities allowed students to
learn how making art together affected
both their social relations and the
finished artwork, without making them
feel as though they had to compromise
the quality of their work. There was also
a lot of listener-centered and iterative
dialogue throughout the course.
How did your group fare with
collaborative decision making? How did
you come to agree on specific ideas or
methods of representation?
BM: The smaller activities that
we did before we dived into the final
designs were so useful in establishing
the group dynamic and setting us up to
make decisions together. While we each
could have created our own individual
response to the design prompt, it was
essential to establish a group-oriented
ideation and creation processes that
elevated all voices. Making a collage
of our thoughts, inspirations, and
commentary on the statues after
our first visit set up an egalitarian
creative environment, as each piece of
a collage lacks a visible or discernible
author. Having a few low-pressure
brainstorming sessions, followed by
anonymously reviewing and editing one
another’s first drafts, created an open
forum in which everyone could see how
the overall group’s thought processes
were progressing. This made the final
decision-making process smoother,
as the trajectory of where we were
coalescing around ideas was clear.
WH: Can you describe the Pioneer
and Mother installations, as well as the
themes each group explored through art
making?
BM: The Pioneer installation,
Destiny Manifested, reflected
the unforeseen consequences of
colonization. Students in that group
(which I did not directly participate
in) constructed a plexiglass pedestal to
place at the base of The Pioneer. Inside
the pedestal were layers of objects,
symbolic of concealed layers of history.
Soil laid the foundation, as all history
is built on the land. Grass seeds were
spread over the soil to represent the
loss of habitat and indigenous people’s
ecology, and corn kernels represented
agricultural practices. Bullet shells
and plastic soldiers referenced the
oppression and warfare that have
displaced communities throughout
history; Douglas-fir cones symbolized
large-scale ecological changes that
occurred throughout the Willamette
Valley region. A layer of moss on
the very top represents the covering
up of history. Reflective Mylar that
lines the top of the pedestal enables
viewers to see themselves as part of the
installation and as agents of historical
change. Finally, The Pioneer stands
atop all of these layers as an icon of
frontierism and oppression.
The piece my group created,
Peace (PAX) For Who?, was meant to
challenge the sentiment behind The
Pioneer installation Destiny Manifested by Peyton Johnson, Shasta Meehan, Chris Weaver,
Chad Hawthorne, and Isabela Ospina.
University of Oregon students Peyton Johnson, Shasta Meehan, Chris Weaver, and
Chad Hawthorne assembling the Pioneer Installation.