“Folding Field,” 2025, Textiles, steel, ceramics, concrete, wood, paint, Total Installation extends about 10 acres, highest point is 15 feet, Photos by Maya Ciarrocchi and Stefan Hagan.
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For Wave Hill’s 60th Anniversary, I was asked to create a site specific installation on the grounds of the property, responding to the prompt of what reciprocal care means in relation to the trees. In response, I created an installation inspired by invisible non-human systems of care that already exists for the trees, as well as considering not only this contemporary moment, but ancient time as well.
The design of all of the sculptures are based on data visualizations from sound recordings of mycorrhizal fungi from specific tree species. Mycorrhizal fungi have symbiotic relationships with the trees, which share and distribute resources and aid in communication between trees. I uploaded the sound recordings to Adobe Audition, and these data visualizations became the patterns and geometries of the soft and hard sculptures. Not only did I want to make these systems of care visible, but I also wanted the sound recordings to be from a variety of socioeconomic neighborhoods in the Bronx, such as Riverdale and Mott Haven. Although Riverdale is one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the Bronx, it was recently redistricted with the 15th congressional district, the poorest district in the United States. By overlapping the visualization of mycorrhizal fungi from a Linden, Oak, and Sweetgums in Wave Hill alongside fungi from the same tree species in Mott Haven, the trees can communicate with one another across human made boundaries. In addition to sound recordings of these fungi, I also recorded myself reading a section from bell hooks text, All About Love, which considers how love is the root of all care.
The color of all of the sculptures are fuchsia, referencing the types of visible light that are best for tree growth - red and blue. When turned on, growth lights create a bright fuchsia glow. The ceramic sculptures are inspired by fruit and flowers of angiosperm species of trees at Wave Hill. Fruiting trees symbolize resilience. The design of how these trees propagate has allowed them to survive since the time dinosaurs roamed the Earth. These sculptures sit inside of steel and acrylic prisms, with rods zig zagging sporadically across the interior. The geometries of the 12 prisms are also shaped by the recorded sound waves.
Wave Hill sits across from the New Jersey Palisades, steep cliffs that are geological evidence of the splitting of the supercontinent Pangea. This constant visual reminder of ancient time, alongside the fact that the tree species I was researching were thousands of years old and had survived the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, made it important for me to think about how to incorporate ancient time. The blue and pink tapestries are made from tear-drop shaped fabric. This shape references the shape of a fossil of a Linden Tree leaf. The placement of the prisms themselves are based on the position of the constellations one could see from Riverdale at the date and time of the opening, June 7, 2025, 4pm EST.