After a much-too-long period of silence – during which I’ve been focused primarily on music - I am happy to share my newest solo work which has swung back into the realm of Urban Plant Research: an installation made from recycled Christmas trees!
I hope those of our readers in New York City will consider joining me at the opening of my show Needle Bed this evening from 7-9pm at Open Source Gallery in South Slope, Brooklyn. Despite the ridiculously freezing temperature outside, it will be festive!
Here’s statement I wrote about the piece:
“Using Open Source Gallery and its environs as a work space and source of materials, I have collected 12 discarded Christmas trees and transformed them into a floor cover through the labor-intensive process of trimming, breaking down and de-needling the trees by hand.
“With the resulting mulch arranged in a 19th century patchwork quilt pattern, Needle Bed evokes an odd disconnect between the natural and man-made environment and contrasts the domestic comforts associated with textile art with the ruggedness of outdoor manual labor. Needle Bed also captures the decomposing trees in a transitional state as their role changes from celebratory, decorative household fixture to recycled garden mulch. These various distinctions will blur, literally, as visitors walk across the unaffixed greenery, erasing the orderly pattern and breaking down the plant material even further.”
Sara, this looks totally awesome! Best Christmas tree recycling art project I’ve ever seen. How does it look now that everyone’s walked on it!?
Thanks Leslie! It definitely got “messed up” but the pattern persisted more than I thought it would… I’ll be posting official before and after pictures of the finished piece shortly!
Glad you will post after photos. Sorry to have missed the event.
Me too! Sara, is the installation still viewable – by appointment, maybe? Or have you already swept up the needles?