Project Statement: W(h)ither The Garden

“It is our task to imprint this temporary, perishable earth into ourselves, so deeply, so painfully and passionately, that its essence can rise again, invisible, inside of us.” -Rilke 

This body of work takes the form of an anthology or a florilegium in that it is a collection of botanical imagery. It is Inspired by the herbarium sheet: an 11 1/2“ by 16 1/2” rectangle of stiff white paper on which a pressed plant specimen is mounted and archived in an herbarium for scientific inquiry. These installations address the loss, memory, grief, and solastalgia* inherent in living in the Anthropocene. The ghost meadow consisting of eighteen floor-to-ceiling embroidered banners, is a spectral meadow, reflecting the loss of landscape and specifically the loss of plant species due to climate change. It is intended to evoke the pastoral, the nostalgic and to suggest absence. 

*The pain or distress caused by the ongoing loss of solace and the sense of desolation connected to the present state of one’s home and territory.