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The Century Plant
The project is a large scale agricultural device that slowly alters the desert landscape.This device/machine is used in the growth and harvesting of Agave, a desert plant native to West Texas, whose juice is becoming a popular “organic” substitute to the infamous High fructose Corn Syrup used to sweeten sodas and other food products in the US. The machine houses a large production facility on the outer rim that filters and packages this juice and encloses a farm on the inside. Much like an oil rig or other such large scale machines of Texas it is inhabited by the people who work on this machine making it a home to this small community. This machine sits on top of the field till the plant is all taped out and then moves on to farm somewhere else slowly changing the face of this bare desert landscape.
The project operates in the context of the constant conflict America faces with the food industry where consumers are exploited to the point of great danger and the solution to this is also a seen to have great financial potential and therefor runs the risk of being treated in the same way. It deals with notions of mass consumption and consumerism and inevitably of naive decision making combined with immense ambition. The project is an ironic take on American industry and the way it shapes the landscape in often ruthless and brutal ways.
The amount of Coke consumed by one American family of four in a year
