In 1846 Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the poem ‘Hamatreya,’ about man’s claim to earth and Earth’s retort to this claim. One-hundred and fifty years ago, Emerson explored man’s sense of entitlement towards nature, while proposing that he is but a visitor. It is earth that rightly claims permanency over man. MINE-? was filmed on Eld Inlet in the South Puget Sound, Washington State. The piece was inspired by the excavation of an uninhabited (by man) forest plot, for the purposes of building a residential home. The plot had once been cleared and farmed. It was abandoned some sixty years ago and in time reverted to a lush forest. I could not help but think that once this future structure was also eventually abandoned, it would return to its original owners.
In Emerson’s poem, Earth retorts:
‘They call me theirs,
Who so controlled me;
Yet every one
Wishes to stay, and is gone,
How am I theirs,
If they cannot hold me,
But I hold them?’
To view the video, see below or on VIMEO
"MINE-?," single-channel video, 6:18 min 
