[1][2] The work, a 2.2-acre field of wheat, was grown on the empty Battery Park landfill in Manhattan, next to the World Trade Center, for four months from 1 May to 16 August 1982.
[5] 200 truckloads of soil were used[5] to cover two inches,[3] and 285 hand-furrowed rows of traditional wheat[5] from North Dakota[6] were planted on 1 May 1982,[2] using a tractor.
[4] The wheat was placed under stress by the mildew and other factors, meaning that it headed too early and needed to be harvested a month earlier than initially planned.
[5] Wheatfield — A Confrontation was intended to protest global warming and economic inequality, critiquing the misplaced priorities of modern society.
Denes has since said of the artwork that: "My decision to plant a wheatfield in Manhattan, instead of designing just another public sculpture, grew out of the longstanding concern and need to call attention to our misplaced priorities and deteriorating human values.
To attempt to plant, sustain and harvest two acres of wheat here, wasting valuable real estate and obstructing the ‘machinery’ by going against the system, was an effrontery that made it the powerful paradox I had sought for the calling to account.
[4][6] Wall Street did not initially welcome the project, though Denes has said that "people from all the office buildings came down to visit us and they prayed for gentle rain, it became their field.
[5] The photographs, as well as vintage videos of the work, were placed on display at the Shed in New York City, as part of its 2019–2020 exhibition Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates.
She stated that "this Wheatfield is a totally different idea — to bring people together," and as such worked with residents, students and small businesses to plant and care for the wheat.
It was planned to be harvested by Montana State University’s plant sciences department that summer, at which point local bakeries would use it to stock regional food banks.