Title: The Thundering Hoof
Artist: Mike Hansen Exhibition year: 2011
Mike Hansen similarly elicits visitors' involvement in Thundering Hoof. He amplifies the footsteps of visitors hiking along a path just off the main road bisecting the Tree Museum by hiding microphones under metal plates that are, in turn, hidden under leaves and grass. This amplification instills a self-consciousness over the noise the visitors make. However, it is not just self-consciousness that Hansen evinces. He suggests, furthermore, that visitors should ponder their position in the forest in relation to what is around them - that they are potential interlopers. He asks those walking over his piece to consider how their 'thundering' presence may affect or interfere with what is around them - the small animals who cower, and the land that will eventually become trodden down. Along with such cautionary connotations, it is also worth noting that hearing one's footsteps unusually loudly results in a momentary shift of reality, a shift equally integral to Dan Graham's iconic mirror sculptures, which Graham has appropriately deemed a psychedelic effect.
Some Items Will Shift, by Earl Miller(Tree Museum Catalogue, 2011)
Lives and works in Toronto and for the past decade have concentrated on sculpture and installation that examines the notion that spectators can co-author the artworks by playing a role in the works function and purpose.
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