Selected Environmental Projects
ONLINE
INTERVIEW ABOUT JANE'S ENVIRONMENTAL ARTWORKS
Sam
Edsill, Editor of the online art magazine MENTAL CONTAGION, interviewed Jane
about her environmental art projects for the Spring 2007 issue of the magazine.
The interview with Jane was featured in the "Cause and Effect - Art and
Environment" section for April 2007.
To go directly
to the interview, click
here
Earth Day
Art Installation at Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan, April 23, 2006 - until
the flowers bloom in mid summer.
Jane
worked with students and faculty at Tunghai University to create an installation
to celebrate Earth Day 2006 and raise public awareness about environmental issues
in Taiwan and around the world. Jane led students in creating a large-scale
public participation artwork titled "Living Earth and Blue River. " This
artwork continues Jane's series of art installations that are designed to change
over time and use the processes of nature as a partner in creating living, changing
artworks. For these installations Jane uses biodegradable paper pulp containing
seeds for wildflowers poured onto prepared soil in public participation ceremonies
to create large-scale images. Jane helped the students at Tunghai University
to design and prepare the earth and make the paper pulp from recycled paper
and local plants. The paper pulp was dyed with non toxic dye and wildflower
seeds were added to the pulp. Over time the paper pulp dissolved into
the earth, the seeds sprouted and grew to produce a living, blooming image of
the earth with a blue river of flowers flowing from the earth, to remind us
of the importance of keeping water sources pure.
Many
people gathered on Sunday afternoon April 23 to ceremonially pour the paper
pulp on the prepared soil. The President of Tunghai University and the
Dean of Students joined in this ceremony, and Jane and the two important guests
poured the pulp to create Taiwan on the map of the earth.
The site
of the art installation on the Tunghai University campus is near the Library
in an open courtyard surrounded by tall buildings that give a great view of
the installation from the upper floor windows. The image of the Earth
created is about 6 meters in diameter and shows Taiwan in the center and parts
of Asia in mixed colors of red, orange, yellow and pink paper pulp with wildflower
seeds that will bloom in these colors. The "river" of blue pulp
containing seeds for blue wildflowers stretches for about 20 - 30 meters on
each side of the "earth."
"Cocoon,"
Monarch Contemporary Art Center and Sculpture Park, Tenino, WA, - installed
in June 2003 and continuing to change over time.
Jane
worked as an artist in residence to create a site specific outdoor sculpture
installation at this sculpture park near Olympia in Washington State during
the month of June 2003. This environmental installation "Cocoon" is
based on the life cycle of Monarch butterflies and features a structure of vines
and fallen branches covered with handmade paper containing seeds for wildflowers.
The seeds will sprout and grow as the paper dissolves into compost producing
a continually changing work that reappears each season as nourishment for birds
and butterflies and shelter for wildlife. The installation was done in collaboration
with community participants in workshops at the site to collect materials, make
handmade paper from native plants, prepare the ground and create the artwork.
For more information visit the Monarch
Sculpture Park website.
"Spirit of Place - Site Ecology,"
2001 outdoor sculpture and performance invitational, Huntington, VT. June 30-July
29, Wednesday - Sunday, 12-5PM, call for directions 802-434-3285.
For
this outdoor sculpture exhibition, artists were invited by curator and show
organizer Knox Cummin to create a site specific installation that would contribute
positively to the ecology of the site. For this exhibition Jane created a site
specific installation titled "Disappearing Boundary". The installation
consisted of a fence made of fallen branches and handmade paper with wildflower
seeds in it. The paper is designed to dissolve over time, and the seeds will
sprout in the plowed line of earth beneath the fence structure. The line of
wildflowers that emerges will also gradually disappear as they merge with the
existing vegetation. The wildflowers from Jane's installation will nourish birds,
butterflies and bees, and the decomposing branches and handmade paper will act
as mulch. These photos show Jane's installation before and after a July rainstorm
that began the decomposition and changes over time.
Jane
also offered a collaborative workshop with on-site papermaking in Vermont. During
the workshop participants of all ages created a sheltering screen of fallen
branches covered with handmade paper. The participants made paper from plant
materials gathered at the site and using pond water, cooked the fibers in a
pot over a campfire, beat the fibers by hand and formed sheets to place on the
branches. "Shelter Wall" filters the light and provides a sheltering
environment for resting in the nearby hammock. These photos show an inside and
outside view of the handmade paper shelter created during. Jane's workshop June
23-24, 2001.
Silo Shelter,
1996, 16' x 5' x 5', 240 sheets of handmade paper, paint, string and bamboo,
installed in the garden at the Duntog Foundation, Baguio City, Philippines.
"Silo
Shelter" is one of two temporary shelter sculptures made during a January 1996
residency at the Duntog Foundation in the Philippines. The works were designed
to change over time, remaining visually interesting as they decompose and finally
disappear as compost. They are part of a continuing series of temporary shelters
designed to change over time with exposure to the elements and/or with viewer
interaction.
Interior view of "Silo Shelter"; 1996; 16' x 5' x 5', 120 sheets of handmade
paper, each approx. 9" x 12", structure is 16' tall and 5' in diameter installed;
handmade paper, string, paint, bamboo.
This photograph
shows the inside of the shelter which viewers could enter. The pine tree images
painted here echo the forms of the trees in the garden where this piece was
installed at the Duntog Foundation, Baguio City, Philippines. This and one other
temporary shelter "Spiral Shelter" were made and installed during my one month
as an artist in residence at the Duntog Foundation, a center for study and research
in the art of handmade paper.
For the Earth, 1995, 18' diameter, handmade
paper quilt, seeds and living plants, installed on the grounds of the State
University of New York at Morrisville, New York.
This installation was a collaborative project with art
and landscaping students at SUNY Morrisville in celebration of Earth Day's 25thanniversary
in April 1995. "For the Earth" consisted of a bio-degradable handmade paper
quilt made with recycled papers and painted with food coloring in the outline
of the earth showing continents and oceans. Flower seeds in appropriate colors
were planted following the outlines shown in the paper quilt. As the paper quilt
decomposed, the seeds sprouted, flowers grew and bloomed in the colors and shapes
of the earth. The installation grew and changed throughout the summer and fall
until it disappeared with the coming of winter
For
the Birds, 1994-95,
100 burlap bags filled with bird seeds, each approximately 6" x 8" x 6", variable
sizes, installed in Hamilton, New York on the Winter Solstice .
The work
was designed with materials which are bio-degradable and consumable and meant
to change over time finally disappearing as compost. The initial installation
of the work with the aid of friends and family was a celebration of the beginning
of winter. The sculpture/installation provided food for the birds all winter
and many hours of enjoyable bird watching for human viewers.
Selected
Public Art Projects and Commissions
Selected Wall Works and Suspended Sculptures
Selected Multi-part Installations
Selected Figurative Works - Mirrors and Shadows
Selected Collaborative Works with Musicians and Choreographers
The Connemara Installation
Bird Watching Projects
