The Forest
2018
Installation (forest floor materials, digital video, digital photographs, charcoal drawings)
Dimensions variable
The Forest was a collaborative, socially engaged installation installed in the Perspective Gallery at Virginia Tech, and meant to metaphorically move the participant through life's stages in three sections. The viewer is asked to recall in three parts, through the land we now inhabit, the indigenous peoples and ancestors who walked before us. "The Forest Is" embraces the early embryonic, ethereal stage of life (forest thoughts). "The Forest Experiential" includes actual trees, rocks, leaves, fungi and videos. These aspects of the exhibit represent spring, summer, and fall (early to mid-life). The back of the gallery speaks of "Forest Memory" which is embodied in the images of winter trees to represent old age and beyond. My particular contribution to this work includes the large-scale charcoal drawings of the forest, the moving image of clouds, and the conceptualization and re-creation of the forest floor in the center of the gallery