Clockwise from above left, Alaska, Florida, Hawaii and Utah, each with their respective soil samples
On Craigslist, artist H. Mathis, posted a listing in each of the 50 United States, letting people know he was working on an art project and hoping for samples of actual dirt from each state.
He explained that he'd created a "retrieval" system and would send a kit for the actual packaging and returning of the dirt, postage paid. He sent out over a hundred kits in hopes to get 50 usable samples for his project.
He then had to sift through the samples, remove bugs, gravel and some other disgusting items and then dried most of the samples out. He then bagged and tagged them.
From there he created a very artfully displayed presentation in the Dirt Show, part of the Multi Polar Exhibition, in which the culmination of the intensive dirt collection became an installation in which the dirt from each state was displayed on an individual rotating pedestal.
And the orange surface on which the dirt was placed is shaped as each state.
above left: Alaska and above right, Florida and their respective soil samples
Dirt from AK to WY:
See more of H. Mathis unusual thinking and expression at his site, antisuccess.
