Echoes of the Prairie, Morgan Siemers

In 1878, KU Chancellor James Marvin led an effort to plant trees over this once rocky hollow punctuated with prairie grass resulting in the grove we explore today. This action destroyed indigenous ecosystems and obscured their stories. Morgan Siemers’s cabinet of echoes invites us to listen for the sounds of the prairie, restoring them to this space. Each compartment contains household materials and instructions for activation. Extending author Robin Wall Kimmerer’s ideas about plants as subjects not objects, Siemers invites you to transform common household objects into subjects of the prairie: “Listen intently to the sounds you are able to create and imagine yourself as part of the indigenous ecosystem.”