Planting Utopia

Julia Whitney Barnes
Planting Utopia
Digital prints on alumaboard of original cyanotype and watercolor works on paper
2021
First floor pedestrian bridge, Ticketing

In the spring of 2021, artist Julia Whitney Barnes began to research the herb garden at the Shaker Heritage Society, in Albany, NY, located a brief walk from Albany International Airport. The Society is located on the site of the Shakers’ first settlement in the United States, known as the Watervliet Shaker community. Its herb garden pays homage to the significance of the Shakers’ herb cultivation, and seed and medicinal herb industries. Over the course of a year, Whitney Barnes collected a specimen from each of the 150 herbs grown in the garden, which she pressed and documented.

With this collection, the artist produced two site-responsive installations, this one at Albany International Airport and one at the nearby Shaker Heritage Society on the interior and exterior of the historic 1856 Drying House. For the installation at the Albany International Airport, which occupies former Shaker lands, Whitney Barnes developed a series of eight cyanotype paintings on paper with plants collected from the Shaker herb garden. Their compositions were based upon nineteenth-century Shaker ‘gift’ or ‘spirit’ drawings that were complex, divinely inspired revelations of spiritual perfection, often symmetrical and incorporating botanical elements. These eight original paintings were reproduced on aluminum panels and will be sited in the first-floor pedestrian walkway between the south parking garage and main terminal. Planting Utopia will be on view for a minimum of three years.