April 24 to April 27, 2025 at EXPO Chicago X 6018|North
PRAIRIE COLORFIELD captures and reimagines fragments of the landscape we inhabit as a reminder of the loss of native prairie. The color field on the walls, Acres of Blooms, is made from botanical pigments. The abstracted landscape painting references a time when prairies occupied two-thirds of the midwestern landscape, rich in biodiversity, a holistic interconnected ecosystem of healthy soil, abundant flora, and myriads of bees and butterflies.
The interactive work, Extraction, is a mound of sand and botanicals. Visitors are invited to choose from the color spectrum of the botanicals to add botanicals to the mound. The work represents that prairie that has been removed to make way for construction, destruction, and other changes to the land. By visitors adding to Extraction, they acknowledge their daily participation in the changes to the land. As an exchange they are encouraged to plant pollinator seeds.
The first iteration of Acres of Bloom was created as part of Lost & Found, a group exhibition at the Chicago Botanic Garden (2024). The work came alive as part of an effort to raise awareness of the science involved in prairie preservation. The botanicals used were collected by a group of volunteers at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The new iteration uses the remainder of those materials in combination with Black-eye Susan, handpicked along train tracks during last summer and pine needles sourced from repurposed Christmas trees. This project is unique and an expression of our curiosity of the natural world, its color palette and materiality. Prairie Colorfield is not archival, to live with it is like observing an evolving painterly experience that changes like our landscape in seasons.
Acres of Blooms
Botanical pigments on hardboard or canvas
An abstracted landscape painting of botanical hues creating the illusion of an expansive vista and re-imagining the lost views across the Midwest.
Extraction is a sculptural mound made of sand and botanicals.
Extraction and construction is an everyday sight that alludes to progress and development– for example, the recent destruction of Bell Bowl Prairie that prioritized transportation needs over the stewardship of land and sustainability. This work is a reminder of the loss of our native landscape.
Prairie Spectrum, 2024
137 x 3′ glass beakers on wall pedestal, botanicals, distilled water
A series of glass beakers that act like a seed bank conserving the color spectrum specific to our midwestern landscape.