Our first WW11 meeting was very inspiring and left me with lots to think about… While generally positively received, my initial project idea raised very valid concerns about legal considerations and permission from the gallery space to bring in substances considered dangerous. (Since working with live plants requires time and advanced planning, I started rooting some spider plants anyway, just in case I still decide to go this route but am actively considering other physical iterations of this project idea.)
A number of Wonder Women expressed that what was compelling about my presentation was the personal story of how I came to know that the soil in my backyard is contaminated and suggested I might consider making a video. While I had considered creating a video at a later point, I didn’t think there would be enough time to create what I envisioned within the short time frame of the Wonder Woman residency. With the groups encouragement, I’ll see if I can create perhaps a smaller fraction of the story as a video over the next few weeks.
This week I gathered exiting footage related to my backyard, including more recent family photos, footage of the magnolia tree being cut down, and various gardening experiments since then. While I’m not quite sure of the scope of what I would include in the video, I also feel it’s important to bring even a fragment of this soil and garden into the gallery space. As an alternate possibility to the free plants in contaminated soil, I am considering using a fish tank or constructing a plexiglass box in which I can transfer some of the soil and plants from my backyard to act as a sealed terrarium in the gallery space (exhibited along with the video).
