Michele Brody creates intricate site-specific installations using living plant materials. Her sculptural works are often in the form of paths and passageways and invite viewers to enter the space, then pause inside to reflect and to experience actual change and transformation. When entering her installation one is being made aware of the subtle passage of time through the germination, growth and decay witnessed in the life cycle of plants.
In all of her work Michele Brody is interested in producing an impression of the phenomenon known as the limen. It is the threshold through which one passes at the starting point for a new state of experience. These thresholds, or spaces through which people pass as they move from one place to another are liminal spaces. Hallways, stairwells, and outdoor walkways can elicit this experience which can be disorienting or exhilarating, but can lead to some form of transformation. Brody wishes to achieve such a response by minimally enhancing what one would normally expect within these spaces. Using plants, water, soil, fabric and copper piping she creates resonant, living breathing, sculptural works that invite the viewer to an openness of sensation while experiencing the work. Brody’s passgeways convey the delicate characteristics of memory and how time can both erode and enhance our interpretations of experience. By incorporating the liminal experience–with its message of change and transformation, Brody makes the viewer more aware of the relationship between nature and the built environment and asks them to question the balance between humans and the natural world.
Amy Lipton
Curator, Ecoartspace and
Abington Art Center
