SYMBIOSIS — A Work in Progress →

SYMBIOSIS

a multi-year work 8/2020 — 7/2023

53.5’ X 48’

Found object—Lawndale Art Center’s Mary E. Bawden Sculpture Garden, compost, mulch, native plants, sculptural native decomposing wood stumps and roots, community, and urban wildlife

photo by Nash Baker

“We see nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time has marked the long lapse of ages.”

—Charles Darwin, Origin of the Species

In Symbiosis, I am stretching my practice and creating a living piece of site-specific social sculpture that reimagines a 53.5’ X 48’ traditional urban landscape/sculpture garden and answers the question: how do we holistically restore an ecological balance in Houston? Symbiosis is a collaboration with Lawndale Art Center’s community, neighbors, urban wildlife, and the coastal prairie’s carbon cycle.

The Mary E. Bawden Sculpture Garden's terrain, with its manicured landscape functions as a living, found object. In phases, I am implementing holistic regenerative agriculture concepts with sculptural techniques of carving and assembling, utilizing ordinary tools to manipulate organic materials such as water, clay, and carbon in a manner that will absorb light and store carbon. I am sculpting the surface into the textures, colors, and scents that attract and support Houston’s urban wildlife, inviting living organisms to return to the space. Symbiosis will be a living, breathing installation that stores carbon and absorbs rain. As temperatures dip, Symbiosis will mark the slow changes in progress; a vibrant field of greens spiked with hues of blues, cones of purples, and splashed with rods of gold will fade into winter. The withering flora will be stored as carbon in the soil of life. Their roots will follow creating cavities and nourishment for subterranean citizens to dwell and micro underground storage facilities for future downpours. Spring showers will trickle from leaf to leaf and dribble into the expanding brown sponge of living organisms, refreshing the living. A rising eastern sun will drape the surface with silent bells and clusters of stars tinted pinks and reds, bringing birds and butterflies. The likes of bustling Bombus penslyvanicaus quivering among the stamen and the stigma will deliver summer’s bounty. Every season the patina will reflect a new light, transform energy, and attract a kinetic array of species that will stipple the installation with flutter and buzz. Time will be marked by the installation’s natural rhythms and carbon cycles: when the Carolina Wren’s whistles wake up the morning, when silver-haired bats fly during a summer sunset, when the Eastern Screech owls search the dark as male Mockingbirds practice their solos at full moon. It will saunter to the rhythm on the migratory pathway of the Coastal Prairie ecosystem and set its stage for urban regional art exhibitions. In the city known for its diversity of people, the garden will become a space for the voices of contemporary imaginations to sing with their natural history and influence its cultural and ecological future.

As the hand of time marks the long lapse of ages, we will reconnect with the unique local landscapes that define and support Houston, Texas.





Climate change is the DIY responsibility of all humans.

blog posts by subject.

Symbiosis Celebration — Incorporating economics as a material to heal the planet.

CARBONsink — Turning turf grass into a CARBONsink

water + air + citizen

14” X 6” X 6”

Found objects — a glass jar and cork lid, shale, charcoal, mesh, distilled water, Springtails, a Monarch carcass, living soil, Horseherb (Calyptocarpus vialis), Bigfoot Waterclover Marsilea macropoda, two chrysalides, two oyster shells, decaying bee balm bloom and a bird skeleton.

image by Nash Baker

water + air + citizen


I documented the event by having the participants take a small step as a community to build a healthy functioning ecosystem collectively. Earth's water system is a closed water system. Although we can make soil, we cannot make more water.

Before the discussions began as a symbolic gesture, each person added an element to provide the future with a water system to sustain life on Earth. The objects in the documentation are found objects — a glass jar and cork lid, shale, charcoal, mesh, distilled water, springtails to eat the fungus, and a Monarch carcass to envision the future. Sourced from Symbiosis, the piece includes living soil, Horseherb (Calyptocarpus vialis), Bigfoot Waterclover Marsilea macropoda, two chrysalides, two oyster shells, decaying plant matter and a bird skeleton.

After the event, I added elements present in urban earthly healthy ecosystems; the bird skeleton I found in Symbiosis last spring, two chrysalides vacated by butterflies and left on Lawndale's fence, a dried lemon bee balm bloom, and lastly, a past Monarch butterfly. Monarchs were not witnessed in Symbiosis' first year. I found this Monarch on the sidewalk of my neighborhood. To recover endangered species, we must envision them in our terrain, provide habitat and plants that give them nectar. I placed the terrarium on two broken concrete pavers. As an urban community, we took the first step we successfully built an ecosystem where our actions support natural systems that temper weather and provide clean water and air.

In 2021 I proposed to Lawndale a social Sculpture that addresses the three ways humans intersect soil in Houston. The way we treat our soil impacts two ingredients necessary to sustain life on Earth, water and air.

Public policy, Design industry, and Art activism.

Water + Air + Citizens is a discussion that looks at three ways Houstonians (humanity) impact these natural systems through urban landscapes.

Medians, yards, gardens, lots, parks, blocks are all surfaces of Earth. But, by any name, the skin of our planet purifies its water and regulates its atmosphere.

As the event grew close, I began to see a bigger picture, another layer to the work. In my sculpture practice, this is a common occurrence. In this case, I became aware that the title I chose for the sculpture is three of the most potent elements in weather. First, with water, we have floods and hurricanes. We are hit with hurricanes, tornadoes, and dust bowls in the air. Finally, citizens' power of public opinion is a tremendous force and often overcomes the common sense of individuals and leaders.

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