Mary Miss has filed an injunction against the Des Moines Art Center to protect her work.
By Stephen Zacks
Mary Miss, pictured in her New York City studio, says the museum did not consult with her on plans for demolition. Photo © Lila Barth.
Though women have been important contributors to the land art movement, their work has often gone underappreciated and underacknowledged. A court case against the Des Moines Art Center to protect one of Mary Miss?s major pieces, Greenwood Pond: Double Site, bears out how severely this blind spot could affect the legacy of an important sculptor who uses terrain as her material.
Commissioned in 1989 by Julia Brown Turrell, a well-known contemporary curator for the Des Moines Art Center, Miss conceived Greenwood Pond: Double Site as a demonstration wetland in the middle of Des Moines. The work was a commentary on the disappearance of wetlands throughout Iowa due to farmland drainage. Working with a community group and science center to plan the installation, she started building in 1994 and finished in 1996. A sloping wooden walkway slips down into the pond, traced along the shore by a gravel path with observation points and a pavilion that doubles as a shelter for ice skaters during winter months. In December 2023, the Des Moines Art Center notified Miss of its plan to demolish the work. It had set aside $350,000 to drain the pond and remove its pavilion feature and distinctive arched boardwalk, replacing them with natural landscape and a...