To The Remembered Earth: Renée Green at Western Washington University’s Sculpture Collection

When words, names, and years / Are given space and place / What happens?
If buildings could talk / And hear trees speak / What might they say?
They all together considering
Matter Memory Space Time

Renée Green

On October 2, 2025, artist and Professor Renée Green’s newly commissioned permanent sculpture, Space Poem #15 (To the Remembered Earth) will be dedicated at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA.

Prompted by a 2022 invitation from the Washington State Arts Commission to contribute to Western Washington University’s notable Campus Sculpture Collection, Green has created a dispersed, yet connected, Space Poem constellation.

In her proposal statement, Green wrote: “I am proposing this work to exist in three public thoroughfare locations on campus […] These sites were chosen to create a meandering path among specific works in the current Campus Sculpture Collection that resonate with my intellectual and aesthetic interests and trajectory. I am proposing an indoor work, but importantly, a work able to be perceived from the (current) public outdoors.”

From WWU’s Western Gallery’s entrance to the Interdisciplinary Science Building to WWU’s Instructional Center’s Skybridge, the perceivers can encounter the work as they enter their buildings, or as they stroll through campus to different locations. Importantly, each location has been mindfully considered by the artist, providing unexpected conjunctions with other works in the collection, such as Robert Morris’ Untitled (Steam Work for Bellingham) (1971), Nancy Holt’s Stone Enclosure: Rock Rings (1977-78), Bruce Nauman’s Stadium Piece (1998-1999), Scott Burton’s Two-Part Chairs, Right Angle Version (A Pair) (1997), Richard Serra’s Wright’s Triangle (1979-80), and Luis Camitzer’s A Museum Is a School (2009-present).

Green states: “Key concepts for the contents of this Space Poem continues to revolve around my thinking about these two terms: Geopiety, and Survivance, a term used by scholar Gerald Vizenor.”

More information:

Western Washington University, Campus Sculpture Collection

Space Poem #15 (To the Remembered Earth) consists of:

Part I: To the Remembered Earth (After Momaday). 2025. Double-sided porcelain enamel, 12 panels, each 22 in x 16 3/4 in. Campus Locative: Interdisciplinary Science Building, Western University, Bellingham, WA.

Part II: Found Said Sung. Double-sided polyester canvas banners, 20 banners, each 42 in x 32 in. Campus Locative: Skybridge. Academic Instructional Center East & West

Part III: Matter Memory Space Time. Glass panels, 8 panels, each 46 1/4 in x 46 1/4 in. Campus Locative: Western Gallery

The artworks’ dedication was preceded by a public artist talk and a conversation between Green and artist, writer, and publisher Kristina Lee Podesva, followed by a round of questions from WWU’s faculty.