the spreading garden

During the summer of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, I was grateful to participate in Indy Art & Seek - a program (and phone app) of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and the Arts Council of Indianapolis - through which over 100 art interventions (or “moments of delight”) were placed in Indianapolis’ neighborhoods. I worked with the community of Martindale-Brightwood to install The Spreading Garden. This installation was my attempt to spread a bit of beauty and wisdom rather than disease.

The garden was located in the Unity Park beds of the Felege Hiywot Center. It involved planting a circle of canna lilies - a rhizome of tall, lush beauty, whose flowers look eerily similar to the spikes that adorn the corona virus molecule. These plants multiply and spread rapidly underground. The Martindale-Brightwood community group, One Voice, provided me with the one-word ideas that they’d like to see spread in their community. These words were etched onto ceramic blocks that I made, stacked and placed within the garden of lilies… unity, peace, justice, faith, collaboration, family, community, leadership, resilience, transformation and education.

The final element of this piece was the digging-up and dispersal of the multiplied canna lily rhizomes… thus spreading beauty to more gardens in the future. This was dome as part of the 2020 Spirit & Place Festival in November.