Temporary Terrains

An ephemeral clay installation and social practice project at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in 2019.

Research and Development

During the research and development phase of my project, I had special access to the beautifully curated landscape at Fairchild and I collaborated with the education department. I visited with field biologists from the Scientific Village Community on site who specialize in conservation ecology. I wanted to learn more about the impacts of sea level rise on plant communities of south Florida, restoration ecology, field botany, rare plants and their habitats. These scientists helped me to identify and understand the species of plants and their connection to the systems in which they thrive. I then collected samples and cast imprints of the flora in silica-free silicone to use as the molds for my installation.

Textures and imprints cast from Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

Built by the Community

Through a series of collaborative workshops for students and the general public, members of the community could participate in my project by modeling the clay into the molds of plants and adding them to a large post-and-lintel structure over the entrance doors to the Garden. The artwork was assembled during the Ramble Garden festival which took place over the course of a weekend in November, where the structure was totally wrapped in the unfired clay textures of leaves, roots, bark and flowers. It was subsequently destroyed and the clay was recycled with water one week later, to be used for another installation. Through these ephemeral compositions, it is my hope to cultivate in others a love of clay, to inspire environmental stewardship and to serve as a reminder of the fragile and finite existence of our society's current relationship to it’s ecosystems.

Workshops and construction of the installation at the garden.

This project was funded by the Wavemaker Grant 2019 Cycle through Locust projects in Miami.