Observed
The bulbs turned toward the windows over the course of each day.
The time-lapse revealed movement that wasn't visible in the room.
Some bulbs bloomed during the exhibition.
Others waited until they returned home.
Many of the bulbs were planted after the exhibition ended.
Some continue to bloom in other gardens.
My gas line froze.
The bulbs were warm.
Field Notes
Sometimes an artwork asks to be made twice.
Not because the first version failed,
but because it still has something to teach.
The tulips shifted the work.
Instead of many species,
there was one.
Difference emerged from within the same family.
I found myself thinking less about diversity
and more about variation.
No bloom opened on schedule.
No flower followed another.
Time refused to become uniform,
even when everything else appeared the same.
The metronome kept perfect time,
The tulips didn't.
That tension became the work.
March 2023
Program Interrupted
Tulip Field
Second Iteration
Westport, Connecticut
2023
Following its first presentation, Program Interrupted was reimagined as a field of hundreds of living tulips for a two-person exhibition with CAMP Gallery.
An analog metronome, modified to maintain a steady sixty beats per minute, accompanied the installation as hundreds of tulip bulbs gradually opened, turned toward the light, and changed throughout the exhibition. Time-lapse cameras recorded these nearly invisible movements, revealing rhythms that unfold too slowly for us to notice in everyday life.
While the original installation brought together many different flowering species, this iteration focused on a single organism expressed through extraordinary variation. Each tulip carried its own color, form, and timing, transforming the gallery into a living landscape that continued changing long after the installation was complete.
