I edited much of this interview with Suko Presseau after reading Michael Pollan's essay Why Cook?, (1) which details how Americans increasingly prefer quick and easy pre-prepared meals. Despite the pervasiveness of celebrity chefs (as well as their cookbooks, cookware, and other product endorsements', and cable networks dedicated solely to cooking, trends show that more and more families are abandoning their kitchens. Sensitive to how eating remains one of the last opportunities in modern society to declare our independence from the corporations seeking to organize our every waking moment into yet another occasion for consumption, Pollan adamantly rejects the notion that production is work best done by someone else. It was serendipitous. Presseau echoed Pollan's sentiment in expressing the need to reimagine the impact consumers have on food systems. She explained the need for a greater understanding of the natural world and the cycles of life and death that are intrinsic to all living things. In the conversation that follows, which took place in late February and early March of this year via Gchat and Google Does, Presseau discussed how, as an artist and farm educator, she responds to community engagement and envimnmental politics. HARRY J. WEIL: For the past eight years, you've been based out of the Hudson Valley in New York State. What brought you there? How has it impacted your art practice? SUKO PRESSEAU: I grew up in the suburbs and then moved to New York City. In the summers, I would head upstate to go camping, hiking, or swimming whenever I could and had a real desire to move out of the city and to the country. It reminded me of summer camp in Maine, visits to my uncle's dairy farm, and the freedom and sense of safety of childhood visits to japan. In 2006 I started working for an arts nonprofit that had a residency program in northern Dutchess County [New York State]. I wanted to build a garden and create an agrarian-art utopia. That failed. but it led me to a job as a farm educator, which I did for the last six years. I worked with schools and community groups and designed a half-acre public educational garden. I came to agriculture through food politics and environmentalism. Big Ag represents so many of society's ills--corporate greed, environmental destruction, imperialism, a disregard fur public health and well being. Local, sustainable agriculture can be a direct challenge to that, and a system where consumers can make an impact. Moving to the Hudson Valley and becoming involved with farming gave me a whole new experience as an artist. I fell in love with nature and the landscape in a way I never did in the city or suburbs. My garden and the farm where I lived became new media to work with. Artmaking and farming are both physical. tactile modes of production. Building a functional space, learning how to work in a new medium, and seeing others interact and experience the garden were really satisfying. I was fully immersed in that world, and it influenced my life and the art I made outside of my job. I've never been strictly a studio artist. I'm conflicted about materialism and critical of excess consumerism, so while I understand the desire to Own an art object, making objects for the sake of making objects doesn't necessarily appeal to me. For a while, farming and education fulfilled many of my interests as an artist. I had the satisfaction of conceptually and physically making something -a garden, a curriculum, a program. I try to hold on to an idealism that what I am doing to earn a paycheck should be meaningful, and part of my art practice is about sharing and communication, which includes organizing arts shows, educating, and creating gardens that provide habitat for wild animals and promote a healthy ecosystem. HW: For me, so much of your work is about your body's relationship to the natural world. In Untitled (Seppuku) 2012, you lay under an apple tree strung with long strands of sparkling beads attached to your abdomen with pins. …