In this installation, viewers are invited to walk through a hanging forest made of comforting and discomforting objects, woven together in a complex web. The hanging sticks, metals and textiles are all seemingly disparate elements, although when one moves, they all move together, emphasizing the irrefutable unity of the human and the non-human. Beyond emphasizing our connections to each other, the movement reinforces the undeniability of how the self in a network can impact environmental destruction, as well as our enormous potential to create meaningful environmental change.
The forest ends with a colorful and welcoming book. The book, “reconnection” functions as an abstracted proposal of the above. While this book is wordless, it becomes highly specific to our current eco-culture through narration. The phone provides an intimate way to through which to hear the story.
These objects have a deeply personal meaning as well. The hanging forest moves from plastic ridden, to artificial-natural hybrid objects, to natural and cozy textile combinations as one walks. This reflects my own journey in making and reconnecting. From growing up in the suburbs, where the manicured grass could appear anywhere in the country and food came frozen in plastic bags, to knowing the Denison woods, who lives there and how I relate to them.