New Work @ Mass Art
+ Garden Lab
Brandt Gallery, Mass Art
Boston, MA – Jan. 18 – May 7, 2012
Come and see Caitlyn Berrigan, Zenovia Toloudi, and I in an evolving group exhibition at the Mass Art Brandt Gallery. The show includes a series of public workshops and opens with an artist talk on January 26th at 6:30 PM. For my contribution I will develop two garden-based pieces throughout the duration of the exhibition that visualize the future social and botanical ecologies that could emerge as a result of climate change. For more information visit the Garden Lab web site.
The aim for this initiative is to create a garden space and platform where all students and the community-at-large can engage in an open conversation about art, design, food, community, and the environment. The project examines these topics and concerns in experimental and investigative ways, while proposing creative and sustainable solutions and possibilities.
At Garden Lab, I will develop two garden-based pieces that visualize the future social and botanical ecologies that could emerge as a result of climate change. In one, I will create a sculptural trellis and memorial garden using the invasive vine Oriental Bittersweet. Activated and transformed by a series of dialogues and contributions from the Mass Art community throughout the semester, the piece will document to the emotional landscape of fear, hope, and loss that accompanies the narrative of climate and the future. In the other, I will test and build prototypes of seed bearing lawn ornaments made from biodegradable material such as seed embedded paper and seed-bomb clay. These sculptures will be surreptitious planting mechanisms for biodiverse garden environments that house northward migrating species from the south that are displaced by warming temperatures and habitat loss. Interactive and sculptural, both works will examine the “culture” of/in horticulture and the community building and transformative potential of gardens as sites for reflection about and concrete action in response to species and habitat loss caused by global warming and human consumption.
Workshops to come…
Workshop 1: Mass Art students and community members are invited to join Sutton in a participatory dialogue about the future vis a vis climate change. They will share visions and create handmade tree tags that memorialize possible future social, political, or ecological losses: those hoped for, those feared, and those mourned.
Workshop 2: In a hands-on design/build workshop, Mass Art students and community members will learn how to make seed bearing lawn ornament sculptures. Using seed bomb clay, paper, and other materials, participants will be invited to sculpt, modify, and transform pink flamingo lawn ornaments to bring them to their maximum seed-bearing efficiency.
Workshop 1: Mass Art students and community members are invited to join Sutton in a participatory dialogue about the future vis a vis climate change. They will share visions and create handmade tree tags that memorialize possible future social, political, or ecological losses: those hoped for, those feared, and those mourned.
Workshop 2: In a hands-on design/build workshop, Mass Art students and community members will learn how to make seed bearing lawn ornament sculptures. Using seed bomb clay, paper, and other materials, participants will be invited to sculpt, modify, and transform pink flamingo lawn ornaments to bring them to their maximum seed-bearing efficiency.