Brigitta
Varadi
This project is a stand-alone phase and an integral part of Every Sheep Farmer Needs an Artist, an ongoing interdisciplinary collaboration with Turkana Sheep Farm in Germantown, New York. Focused on participatory engagement, it combines sculptural seating and moving image to create an immersive, grounding experience rooted in material, labor, and place.
The installation includes 12–15 interactive seating forms made from hand-felted raw Karakul sheep wool, each fitted to a minimalist wooden structure for one to four people. Retaining its natural texture, weight, and irregularities, the wool invites visitors to sit, lie down, and rest directly on the material, encountering it as a product of agricultural labor and care.
A 10–15 minute documentary video accompanies the seating, documenting the sheep, the shearer, and the farm’s yearly cycle. Together, the seating and film form a cohesive work that stands independently while contributing to the broader project’s exploration of sheep farming, community, and heritage.
Community involvement is central to this project, grounded in sustained collaboration with Turkana Farm, where the farmer and sheep shearer are active partners contributing labor, expertise, and decision-making throughout shearing, sorting, and wool processing. I work alongside them, documenting the collaboration through video and interviews that highlight their knowledge, restore value to previously unused wool, and honor agricultural labor.
