Proboscis Paradise
Plastic bags, steel, thread
Variable dimensions
Commissioned by New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill
Boylston, Massachusetts
2021
Proboscis Paradise is a site-responsive installation of oversized aster flowers constructed from repurposed plastic bags. Developed for the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, the sculptures transformed discarded materials into a temporary pollinator landscape, responding to the surrounding perennial gardens through scale, movement, and color. Originally commissioned as a seasonal installation, the work remained on view well beyond its planned exhibition before continuing through later iterations in new locations. The project marked the beginning of an ongoing investigation into how synthetic materials can behave like living organisms through repetition, light, weather, and time.
Field Notes
Asters were only a suggestion.
The scale came later.
I already knew plastic bags could become fabric.
I just hadn't asked them to become flowers.
Every petal taught me how the next one should be made.
Some ideas don't arrive all at once.
They accumulate.
I thought I was making an installation.
I was beginning a way of working.
April 2021
