January 2000
Central Michigan University Gallery
Mt. Pleasant, MI
Gallery installation, central structure at 8’7” x 4’2” x 5’10”
An installation generated by the architecture and history of the gallery site, which used to serve as a non-denominational church.
On a raised dais sits a house constructed of copper pipe with a pitched roof that mimics the roof-line and upper windows of the gallery space. Leading up to the house are two rows of plastic bowls suspended from the track lighting that directly lit each bowl from above. Within each bowl flaxseeds were planted on the surface of hand made flax paper pulp. Flax seeds were also planted in rows on the surface of hand-made flax paper sheets as shingles on a roof of Plexiglas for the central copper pipe structure. The seeds were watered and nourished by an internal drip irrigation system that rained down from the apex of the roof, and recycled back through a series of gutters. The seeds were left to germinate, grow, flourish and eventually dry out as the paper dried out in the bowls and on the roof. The roots of the sprouts could be seen from within the copper house under the Plexiglas ceiling.