TRACY LINDER
/weTHər/ 2023
found bovine ribs
/weTHər/ was created for the Tinworks Art site and consisted of a 64-foot-long suspended sculpture with animal rib bones arranged to mimic the swirls of wind, whirling clouds, and lightning strikes on the prairie, where Linder works as an artist.
Running the length of Tinworks’ Asterisms (Chris Fraser, 2019) space, the white bones starkly contrasted the darkened room and created shadows against the interior walls and floor. Linder developed this idea out of a concern for the history of eastern Montana and how it is changing, especially given current drought conditions.
Relentless wind that carries the topsoil into the atmosphere inspired the piece. Wind erodes and reveals the skeletal structure of the earth underfoot like The Dust Bowl revisited.
Throughout history, a plethora of large mammals have inhabited the prairie. Many species have had to adapt to new terrain due in part to climate changes and human encroachment. Ribs are important for Linder because they both protect vulnerable organs and are a reminder of all the life that has come before, a sense of the history of each place.
The title /weTHər/ is a homophone for both weather and whether.
ABOUT TRACY LINDER
Tracy Linder’s sculptures and installations address our integral connection to the land, the sanctity of our food sources, and the innate survival skills of all species.
Linder grew up on a family farm and now lives on the vast windswept prairie of south-central Montana where she continues to find source material. Linder uses organic materials such as bone, leather, seeds, leaves, and grasses, often combined with resin and beeswax.
Linder was awarded a Tinworks Art 2021 Artist Grant. Her work was the subject of an article in the November/December 2020 issue of Sculpture Magazine, an interview by Ann Landi. The Yellowstone Art Museum presented a major mid-career retrospective of Linder’s works in the winter of 2020. “Open Range” has an accompanying catalog with essays by Lucy R. Lippard and Susan Barnett, curator.
Linder’s works have been shown nationally and extensively in Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, and North Dakota. She has had numerous solo shows including Missoula Art Museum, MT; Nicolaysen Art Museum, WY; OK Harris Works of Art, NYC; Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, CO; Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis; Gallery 210, St. Louis; Holter Museum of Art, Helena; Dahl Arts Center, Rapid City; Prescott College Art Gallery, AZ; and Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings. In 2015, Linder was a featured speaker at a TEDx event in Billings, MT. She served on the Montana Arts Council from 2008 to 2021. Her work was included in the inaugural exhibit of the Bozeman Sculpture Park in 2011. She was the first artist-in-residence of the Yellowstone Art Museum’s Visible Vault for six months. She was also selected to be a resident at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming.
In 2000, Linder was commissioned by the US General Service Administration’s Art in Architecture program for the Sweetgrass, MT/Coutts, AB Border station. Before that she taught at MSU-Billings and served as the Gallery Director for 7 years. She received her MFA in 1991 from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
2023 Tinworks Artist Tracy Linder