It takes some time to plant 10,000 corn seeds, one at a time, in rows 10-inches apart in what is now an open corn field on the east lawn of Central Middle School.
Volunteers spent Saturday and Sunday under overcast skies and dodging raindrops to plant five types of corn in the field, the tallest varieties on the outside, with gradual smaller varieties making up the interior of the field, marked off with colored string to denote locations for each corn variety.
This fall, the 100-foot by 150-foot field will become “Corn/Meal,” an Exhibit Columbus installation to remind visitors about food production and its importance. Proposed by MASS Design Group, the creators of the installation hope the site could play host to a mini-Halloween corn maze in October.
An artist’s rendition of the installation shows students moving through the corn stalks to a clearing space in the center of the installation where a gathering area allows visitors to contemplate what it must be like to be surrounded by corn stalks.
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“Part of the design intention is that so many people have that relationship to corn — it surrounds them here, and they see it sometimes as sort of background material,” said architect Caitlin Taylor, who operates an organic vegetable and cut flower farm in Connecticut.
The idea behind “Corn/Meal” is to give visitors a chance to walk through a corn field — looking at it, touching it and perhaps learning to appreciate how this crop means food production.
Nearly all of the seed was donated through an arrangement by Rick Johnson, Taylor said.
Carl Lienhoop, a Bartholomew County commissioner, donated the soil for the field — the dirt was used to grow soybeans in one of Lienhoop’s fields last year — as the dirt surrounding the middle school would need better composition to support a corn field.
As a result of the donation, Taylor and the planting volunteers were working with Bartholomew County farmland dirt, with a little bit of a clay consistency, but already prepped for growing corn.
The first seeds went into the ground at 10:17 a.m. Saturday, with Taylor assisted by Ben Valentine, an Exhibit Columbus volunteer who allowed it was his first time to plant corn, and Columbus North High School senior Sydney Wheeler, who participates in FFA and said more of her friends would be by to help.
FFA members will keep an eye on the field for Taylor, handling any watering and weeding that might be necessary as the installation literally grows before Columbus’ eyes over the summer.
Taylor explained the math behind the installation, which included designated grids, planting seeds so many inches apart and the row width, which was a little complicated, but eased by tape measures that allowed volunteers to follow the math.
“Too much math,” Valentine joked as he knelt in the mud and methodically planted seeds on one side of the field.
Taylor said it was important to get the seeds in the ground this past weekend, in order for the corn to be tall enough for the installation’s full effect in August — rain and muddy conditions had already delayed the planting for a week. This past weekend was the last shot and the planting had to be completed, she said.
The Exhibit Columbus exhibition will run from Aug. 24 to Dec. 1. The free event, held every other year, focuses on art, architecture and design, and uses new, pop-up installations to highlight existing structures and landscapes in Columbus, a city known for its Modernist legacy.
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The Exhibit Columbus exhibition is a once-every-two-years display of a wide variety of temporary architectural installations meant to highlight or somehow connect to nearby, permanent structures and buildings in Columbus.
The exhibition is set for Aug. 24 to Dec. 1 and is an exploration of art, architecture and design.
Exhibit Columbus seeks to celebrate Columbus’ heritage while making it relevant in new and modern ways, according to organizers. It is the signature project of Landmark Columbus, which was created in 2015 to care for the design heritage of Columbus, and is under the umbrella of The Heritage Fund — the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County.
To learn more, visit exhibitcolumbus.org.
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