People are tired and need to sit down.
People need to rock in chairs.
You can see how they could do this together in a garden.

Atmosphere was inspired by the ideas at the heart of the Lurie Garden particularly those features of the garden called the Dark Plate, the Light Plate, and the Seam. During the hours that surround dawn and dusk, on three consecutive days, three artists lined the Seam with 7, 8, 9, and then 10 rocking chairs. At dawn, the rockers faced east towards the lake and rising sun; at dusk, west and the sun as it set. The rocking chairs were identical and placed within arms-length of one another. People rocked for as long as they wanted to rock.

The sun illuminates the garden leaf by leaf by flower. The rocking people see this happen. At night, the sun leaves the garden. You can see how rabbits want to live in the garden. They see the leaf lighting and light leaving everyday.

Meigs Field, a single strip airport named after the publisher of the Chicago Herald and Examiner, operated in the lake southeast of downtown Chicago between 1948 and 2003. I didn’t know it was there until the news one night: bulldozers were seen from above gouging enormous, gothic X’s in the airport’s runway; it was a secret apparently well documented, even expected. The mayor took full responsibility, blame and credit, talking up his actions as both a terrorist prevention program and, eventually, a way to make birds feel more welcomed. Caroline O’Boyle, working for the Chicago Park District at the time, invited me to do something on the island. The Language of Birds is a performance inspired by the sound at Northerly Island, that is, hardly any city sound at all. It's quiet. One morning, geese dipped low as they flew overhead to see who rocked in the chairs. During the hour or so that surrounded dawn and dusk, a saw and violin accompanied the chairs placed along the eastern edge of the island facing the lake. People came, not many. One of the science students who helped carry the heavy chairs across the island asked if it was free to watch the moon rise. I invited Mayor Daley to the performance; he didn’t come, but wrote a long letter thanking me on behalf of birds everywhere.

Boxcar is an ongoing collaboration with locomotive engineer, Mildred Hood, that began in January of 2007 and uses movement-based performance, videography, audio field recordings, and the energy dynamics of friendship to generate a larger conversation about history, jobs and commerce, race, and class.

Mildred Hood is a 30-year veteran of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. Currently, her route begins at the depot at 41st and Pulaskie in Chicago and continues through Willow Springs, Lemont, Joliet, Pequot, Coal City, Verona,Mazon, Kinsman, Kernan, Ransom, Toluca, Chillicothe, Edelstein, Laura, Williamsfield, Appleton, Galesburg, Stronghurst, Lomax, Ormonde and ending in Fort Madison, Iowa. Running time is about four hours, but Mildred is on board anywhere between 8 and 12 hours. The train runs at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour and hauls FRAK (Freight of All Kinds) except circus animals: mail, oranges and apples, wine, cheese, TVs, and any and all products from mainland China by way of Wal Mart and the Nexus-Bedford Warehousing and Distribution Center in Bedford Park, Illinois. The conductor rides in the cab with Mildred whose job is to navigate while the conductor keeps the train cars in order. Mildred has personally been involved in six accidents with seven fatalities only one being a certain suicide: a man who sat on the tracks smoking for perhaps two hours – surmised by the number of cigarette butts on the ground – while waiting for the train. At 70 miles per hour, there are 20-30 seconds from the time the engineer sees someone or something on the tracks until they are run over.