Spring 2022

Sculptural installation

'Plastic lounger with bulb" calls attention to the human tendency to corral the natural world (namely trees, grass, pollen, plants and leaves) in cities and curate it to fit our needs. For this installation, I developed a plastic chair with dead leaves inside of it. I collected the leaves from various yard cleaning crews and alleyways as people remove leaves from their yards. These leaves will eventually be put into landfills or recycling plants so that the appearance of yards can be cleared, yet the leaves are still here– just unseen. The chair is paired with a nest-like structure made of chicken wire and spanish moss sourced from my grandparents home in the lowcountry of South Carolina. The nest is holding a bulb of snake plant that was taken from another snake plant that I’ve had for about two years from when I lived in Austin, TX. I forgot to water it for about 6 months and when I started this spring, the bulb appeared. It’s now my hope-filled nest, contrasting to the dead leaves encapsulated within the plastic chair.