Tenacious Numismatic Hops Exchange Harvest Event

press release:

On view indefinitely in the Rooftop Sculpture Garden

New to the MMoCA Rooftop Sculpture Garden, Tenacious Numismatic Hops Exchange (TNHE): a hop garden for unyielding people (familiarly referred to as the Hops Exchange), is being subsumed by hop vines. Designed to resemble architectural trusses, this site-specific, living artwork combines the visual language of industrial construction with an ethic of social engagement. Meg Mitchell conceived the Hops Exchange as a platform to address the socioeconomic history of the plant and the ideas surrounding ownership and control of natural resources, among other complex contemporary issues.

Harvest Event: 6:30-7:30 pm, 10/6: This Harvest Event features an interactive experience choreographed by artist Meg Mitchell, initiating a new annual hops harvest event. With artist-made hops tokens and tally sticks, in addition to bushels of hand-picked hop cones, participants will explore 18th century tools and processes used for on-the-job accounting and payment of hop-pickers. Linking the Hops Exchange and its harvest to the history of hops-related labor and material exchange, Mitchell addresses food as commodity and explores the intersections of power and commerce.