This Spring of 2009the Fancies built an installation at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City in collaboration with artist Dana Sherwood.

Project Outline:

The Ladies' Society of Alchemical Agriculture
a vardo laboratory, cabaret and conciousness clinic.
on the themes of desire, divergence and decay
mission:
to subvert American industriousness by isolating products deemed culturally desirable and to observe the growth of new organisms from these.
to proliferate and diversify desires through the presentation of provocative mutations.
to imagine into being a crop of inspired chimeras, creating a realm of alternative biological possibilities
to blur the trinary between living, dead and nonliving by creating a forum of animated dioramas comprised of materials that intersect and overlap all three categories.
We take the Four H paradigm of cultivation and development through agricultural experimentation and use their model for project outlining and evaluation. Our concepts are inspired by and elaborate on the naturocentric mysticism that we perceive in the hermetic wisdom of The Farmer's Almanac.
We will build a carnival wagon whose form will echo a bungalow in the rural American vernacular. We intend for this vehicle to be fully movable, by horse or human power. This wagon will function as a laboratory and exposition booth. We will display a number of living terrariums, full of natural and cultural materials collected from around the Americas. These will be selected on the basis of their purported desirability. These materials will include local epicurean delights, urban detritus and the distinct self-contained ecosystems that propagate around these. We will also include clockwork automata of biological anomalies and artificial confections in varying stages of mutation and putrefaction. These will operable by a simple hand crank system accessible from the exterior of the wagon. The public not be permitted to enter the wagon, however its contents are visible all from all four sides. The space will be illuminated by skylight and carnival string-lights powered by solar panels.
At the State Fair Opening on May 10th, we will hold a cakewalk. This will be hosted by a barker and a three piece jug band of our assembly. We will include ourselves as participants with an audience drawn from the public. The contest will take place on a floor of mats with animal faces painted on them. The barker will call for the music to hold when we, the plants, are standing on the selected animal. The "winner" will then be asked to step onstage and sit in the cake offered as a prize. Each cake will contain the story of an agricultural wonder, which will be read aloud by the cake-sitter. Following the cakewalk we will reveal ourselves as The Ladies' Society of Alchemical Agriculture and lead the assembled crowd to our wagon-display.