Groundsite Image Gallery
I do not Intend to Voluntarily Leave my Land
Artist: Jost, Lora
Date: 1999
Medium: mixed-media with dirt and photographs
Height: 0.000"
Width: 0.000"
Keywords: eviction
Jake spent four hours with me, taking me to important sites in and around Robinson, Kansas. As we rode together in Jake’s truck, he told me about his family who had farmed in that area for five generations. Jake has taken exceptional risks to hang on to his land and his heritage. I don’t think Jake would mind if I told you that he expresses his emotions freely, and the orange flash in this picture represents the burst of tears that came when Jake was telling me about a very tragic incident that is part of his story. The ghostly hand in this picture reaching for the farmer’s hat represents dark forces at work, trying to strip Jake of his land and livelihood. The photo images in this collage were from snapshots that I took which represent aspects of Jake’s land, livelihood, and heritage. There’s the abandoned house where Jake lived as a kid. There’s a stone barn like the one his ancestors had owned. There are also treasured objects that Jake owns—a sword from the Civil War, an old rosary, a Willie Nelson farm-aid t-shirt. Jake is a rural activist and in the 1970s helped organize against the building of a dam, which would have flooded a lot of farmland in his area. He also fought against a swine confinement facility that polluted the water and made his children sick. And in the 1980s he fought foreclosure of his farm, largely through the legal system. —Lora Quote (within artwork) by Jake Geiger, Farmer, Robinson, KS 11/28/99: “I do not intend to voluntarily leave my land.”