Building Community

2007

Building Community was a project that served as a point of connection between Gradually Green and the museum setting.

Over 20 variations of a handprint merged into a leaf were designed using digital media. Over one thousand leaves were printed on one hundred percent recycled paper, and cut out by hand.

The leaves were pinned to, and covered, a vinework merging human skeletal anatomy and botany.

The handprint is a take off on the metaphor of the "ecological footprint". In our society people are a lot more aware of how and what they touch with their hands than with their feet, making the question of sustainability how we can (re)consider our ecological footprints the way we consider our handprints. The aesthetic design was inspired by the merging of leaf and skin patterns, and the way light illuminates leaves like stained glass.

I wanted to subvert the idea of museum art being isolated from the viewer; I wanted the viewer's handprint to be present .

The viewers were invited to take the leaves, and in return leave me a note (100 percent recycled paper) about a way that they interact with their environment.

It was displayed at the Master's Thesis Degree Show at Cranbrook Academy of Art April and May 2007. For scale, the piece is 4 feet high by 9 feet wide.