Fergus Falls Precious Plastics Collective, Future Fossils
Various locations around Fergus Falls

A collective of community artists in Fergus Falls will create a series of temporary land art installations using structures and forms forged from ordinary plastic waste in the Otter Tail County Precious Plastics Lab. Words and poetry will accompany the installations, encouraging visitors to explore overlooked narratives of the land's history. These sites will invite residents and visitors to sit with our collective circumstance where it seems that convenience necessitates environmental degradation, industry creates ugliness, and cheapness permits exploitation, and will encourage visitors to consider our responsibilities to the land and to one another going forward. 

The Lakes Area Precious Plastic Lab was established at the Otter Tail County Recycling Center in fall of 2020. Precious Plastic is an open source global community of innovators who enable others to participate in local grassroots recycling by transforming ordinary plastic items into useful products or art. 

Erika Frikken (Elbow Lake, MN), Jess Torgerson (Fergus Falls, MN), and Erik Peterson (Alexandria, MN),
FUTURE F​​OSSILS: 1862
46.281790, -96.074417

The Pacific Railway Act calling for western expansion of the transcontinental railroad was signed into law in 1862; this is widely considered to have delivered the final blow to American bison in the wild. Parkesine, one of the earliest versions of plastic, was also introduced to the public during this year.

In creating 1862 we draw a correlation between the demise of American bison and humanity's unfettered consumption of plastic. Animal pelts are included in this project as representation of fur traders who were the first colonial settlers of Fergus Falls, which was in the midst of incorporating during 1862.

This sculpture was made using structures and forms forged from ordinary plastic waste in the Otter Tail County Precious Plastics Lab.

Nancy XiáoRong Valentine (Fergus Falls, MN) & Chelsey Beilhartz (Fergus Falls, MN), FUTURE F​​OSSILS: The Kingdom of Fungi forever and ever, Amen
46.282084, -96.075773

Fungi was here first. A kingdom of its own, Fungi is a large and diverse group of organisms such as lichen, yeast, mold and mushrooms that connects us all through airborne spores and the underground mycelial network. The Fungi kingdom is the only one that holds the power of naturally decomposing many human-made pollutants including oil and plastics.

Through fantastical representation of fungi juxtaposed with tiny Napoleon figures (symbolic of colonization) this sculpture invites you to consider your connection to the continuum of life on earth, reflect on your relationship to land you occupy and imagine ways you can shift your relationship with nature to become more mycorrhizal (mutually symbiotic) through intention and action.

This sculpture was made using structures and forms forged from ordinary plastic waste in the Otter Tail County Precious Plastics Lab.

Laura Youngbird (Breckenridge, MN), Katy Olson (Fergus Falls, MN), and Erik Peterson (Alexandria, MN),
FUTURE F​​OSSILS: Mishipechu Water Protector Panther
46.28244530809381, -96.07573966476504

Mishipechu is a powerful and important underwater creature. To the Anishinaabe, Ottawa, Menominee, Shawnee, and Cree tribes, Mishipechu is also known as the Great Lynx with the head and paws of a great cat, a lizard-like body, covered in scales with spikes along its back and tail.

Mishipechu is the embodiment of power with the dual role of protector and destroyer, known for protecting the water and guarding vast amounts of copper. They are said to live in the deepest parts of lakes and rivers, where they can cause storms. There are consequences for misusing resources.

This sculpture was made using structures and forms forged from ordinary plastic waste in the Otter Tail County Precious Plastics Lab.