We walk for the pleasure of wandering and thinking, for exercise, as a communal activity, to reach destinations and, in some circumstances, for survival.

It is impossible to avoid daily reports of the current forced displacement of populations across the globe. In the United Nations Human Rights Council’s annual Global Trends Report we learn: “The number of people forcibly displaced at the end of 2014 had risen to a staggering 59.5 million. 2015 is on track to see worldwide forced displacement exceeding 60 million for the first time. Globally, one in every 122 humans is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum. If this were the population of a country, it would be the world's 24th biggest.”

Harriet Bart and Yu-Wen Wu’s installation Crossings calls attention to this global crisis. Under boundless skies, beautiful landscapes are divided by borders and fences. The numbers on the rocks and in the video underscore the staggering number of refugees. How many steps must the displaced take to reach a place they can call home?

Viewers were invited to participate in the symbolic migration of rocks across the Cannon River to a satellite site by the Flaten Art Museum at St. Olaf College.

Bart and Wu began collaborating in 2011. Though they work in different media, they have an affinity in their approach to concepts, process, and aesthetic. They believe the collaborative process expands, deepens, and enhances the development of their own individual practices.