My installation proposal for Wave Hill in the Bronx has been selected as one of the top ten and I should find out by the end of the month if I make the final five. The piece tells the story of pollen + Brownian motion. More on that later.


Wave Hill is an phenomenal botanical garden + cultural center in the Bronx, a perfect escape from the city. They have hosted a great number of artists I really admire in the past and I'm honored to have had their curators in my little studio.

CONCEPT:
Pollen is the unsung hero of the botanical world, most often associated with allergies. I'd like to celebrate its quiet contribution to the natural world, its compelling mathematical shape and its place in the history of science. At first blush the installation might strike one as a cheerful field of layered yellow patterns, where one can't quite perceive the boundaries between what is happening inside vs out. However, the longer one engages, the more there is to see.

I call such a work a "narrative pattern" because it also summons the story of how Brownian Motion, pervasively analyzed in the world of finance, was initially discovered via studies by Robert Brown, the botanist. Einstein himself first drafted the "random walk formula" based on Brown's observations on the movement of pollen through water contained in a clear glass jar. In this case, the room becomes the clear jar with a 3D line drawing gingerly jumping across the walls, windows and shadows on the floor. I'm fascinated with the idea of treating the room as a microscope magnifying the invisible forces of the natural and scientific worlds.