Lichty's "Suburban Mediatation" @ Salt Lake Art Center
Image Courtesy Joe Compean Photography

Lichty's "Suburban Mediatation" @ Barrister's New Orleans
Image by Patrick Lichty

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The American Suburb is a place that has its own set of rituals, from the mall to the soccer field to the ubiquitous suburban lawn. When I acquired my first house, I was charged with the task of mowing and trimming the lawn. Within a few weeks, one thing had made itself obvious to me, that the motion of walking with the mower with the steady drone of the engine was strikingly similar to the Zen practice of stone gardening, as in the famous gardens of Ryoani-ji in Kyoto. In addition, the droning of the engine seemed strikingly similar to a recording of chants performed by Tibetan Buddhist monks that I frequently listen to. The convergence of these experiences impressed on me that the practice of lawn mowing appears to be a form of materialist meditation, or even devotion to possessions, which strikes an ironic opposition to the Zen practice. The juxtaposition of such activities with ancient spiritual practices critiques the importance ascribed to banal practices such as yard maintenance in turn of the millennium American materialist culture. In so doing, the artist suggests that lawn maintenance, as well as the placement of certain artifacts, like reflecting balls, plaster rabbits, etc., and reveals the absurdity of the lawn and suburban materialism at the end of the millennium.