Grazing Between Two Worlds, Mia + Eric, 2021, collaborative, participatory artwork

Grazing Between Two Worlds is a collaborative project between Mia + Eric, a shepherdess, and 180 goats. After three years volunteering as goat herders on McHugh Bluff in Calgary and building personal relationships with many of the goats, Mia + Eric decided to create a performance with the goats as a thank you for their labour. Using weeds and other plants that are commonly eaten by the goats while working, Mia created several dye baths and dyed purpose-built costumes that allowed the artists to attach plants to their bodies. As moving weed stores, the artists were able to encourage the goats to move from one grazing area to another while nibbling away at their costumes. Dressed as hybrid goat herders/moving trough, the artists put their bodies into the landscape— between the bluff as it is and an imagined future bluff that the goats are working to create.

In 2018, artists Mia + Eric learned of a City of Calgary initiative to control weeds and increase biodiversity on McHugh Bluff by grazing goats. The two had long been interested in the ecology of the 27 hectare park that runs parallel to the Bow River as it is steps from the artists’ front door. In 2016 they participated in an urban ecology residency that was focused on their immediate neighbourhood and the bluff became an important research spot because it is an obvious meeting place of the human and more-than-human world. They have spent hours observing birds (nut hatches, magpie, crows, kestrels, house finch, and more), coyote, deer, dogs, cats, snakes, mice and of course the mixture of native and non-native plant species (crested wheat grass, alfalfa, tansy, wild liquorice, clematis, caragana, thistle, Manitoba maple, goats beard and more). This work runs parallel to research where Mia + Eric have been looking at the role of rotational grazing on the grasslands as a remediation effort. When invited to participate in Remediation Room the latter was meant to be the artists’ focus, but because of the global pandemic and the COVID-19 restrictions, they shifted focus closer to home.

When Vahana Goats arrived from Kimberly, BC in the summer of 2018 Mia and Eric, along with their neighbour Cindy—a trained naturalist—visited the operations base camp and was told by the camp cook to run up the hill and help herd the goats. Waiting for the artists at the top of the hill was Shepherdess Cailey Chase, 150 goats, and Wayne Wagner (who a much longer footnote will be written someday about his years of gentle care for the bluff and his work to bring the goats in the first place). Mia, Eric, and Cindy all jumped in and started herding. After three years as volunteer herders, Mia and Eric had spent many hours with the goats—making friends with Farkle, Tilo, Aero, Buckwheat, Ginger and others. They had formed bonds with the goats, with Cailey, and the bluff. Each year before the goats arrived, Mia would make twine using grasses and and small crocheted patterns with alfalfa to feed to the goats. She never served them the little vegetative sculptures, but for Remediation Room Mia made the commitment to create a work of art with and for the goats. Images: Bryce Krynski. Scroll down to view.