About this artwork
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Photography and Media
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Artist
- Joel Sternfeld
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Title
- Lost Valley Education Center, Dexter, Oregon, from the series "Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America"
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Place
- United States (Artist's nationality)
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Date
- Made 2004
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Medium
- Chromogenic print
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Inscriptions
- No markings recto or verso Round structures occur in many cultures, from the hogans of the Navajo to the trulli of southern Italy to the krads still constructed in Africa today. Yurts were originally shelters for nomadic peoples living on the grass-covered high plateau of Central Asia. Circularity is universally associated with the sacred—living in or worshipping in a circle is linked with the sun, the full moon, the cycles of the seasons, life. The fact that several yurts are part of the infrastructure of Lost Valley thus seems appropriate, given the cycles of conflict and transformation undergone by the community since its founding in 1989. Today a rural community of about twenty adults, Lost Valley seeks to achieve a balance between a strong ecological focus and a commitment to the functional extended family it hopes to be. However, during the year of 1996, several painful transitions began at Lost Valley—many people left, and friction between old and new members was so high that one resident reported being fearful for his own safety. In the midst of this difficult time, Deborah Riverbend came to Lost Valley and gave a workshop in Naka-Ima, or “Here Now.” Ever since, this philosophy and the very phrase “Here-Now” have become an invocation of a way of being that transformed the community. Lost Valley currently offers workshops in Naka-Ima, which it refers to as “The Heart of Now,” and collectively lives by this principle. Members support one another emotionally, sharing life’s joys and sorrows—and honestly admitting that sometimes it just doesn’t work. From the portfolio, Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America, 1982–2005
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Dimensions
- Image: 26.5 × 33.2 cm (10 7/16 × 13 1/8 in.); Paper: 28 × 35.5 cm (11 1/16 × 14 in.)
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Credit Line
- Gift of Ralph and Nancy Segall
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Reference Number
- 2008.728
Extended information about this artwork
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
