"Prairie | Concrete," presented by interdisciplinary dance artist Pramila Vasudevan and Aniccha Arts as part of Public Art Saint Paul's Wakpa Triennial Art Festival, encourages tree hugging and nature frolicking. The ritual of embodied movement, sound and meditation takes place at three different parks in Saint Paul, the first of which happened on Sunday at Western Sculpture Park.
On Sunday, the performers gathered by a giant silver maple tree — surrounded by gourds, bells and hand-coiled pots. The tree stood in the center of the 16 modern and contemporary sculptures throughout the park.
The performers placed their hands along the tree's bark — sending energy to and absorbing energy from it. They hummed, created percussive sound by tapping the tree and jingled bells. Giggling and singing would erupt and then dissipate.
An encampment for unhoused people existed near the fence on one side of the park, but the city forced the people camping to leave on Aug. 3. The performance began on Sunday with an acknowledgement of the camp's former presence, with the performers sitting in silence, facing the now evicted encampment.
Vasudevan structures the performance score with inspiration from plant cycles. At Sunday's performance, from the central silver tree, the performers branched out to the different landmarks throughout the park, creating moments of curiosity, ritual and discovery, and marking their trajectory with sticks and other objects.
Near a pile of wood chips, performers sprinkled dirt and clovers atop the arms of Sequoia Hauck, who lay in the dirt and grass as if to become one with it. At Melvin Smith's steel "Walking Warrior" (1998) sculpture, also known as "The Spirit of Rondo," Dameun Strange used drum mallets to make a haunting echo.
At another point, performers moved around and inside of Daniel Kainz "Harmony VII" (1997), made of two large pieces of carved white marble. Dancer José A. Luis used his body to become the "S"-shape, akin to the negative space between the two pieces of marble.
The practice of tree hugging isn't new. A famous group of tree huggers from the Bishnoi community in northern India hugged trees in 1730 when the trees near their home were threatened to be cut down to build a new palace. In the 20th century, members of the Chipko movement, beginning in the Himalayan mountains, hugged trees to protect them from deforestation.
