Boite du Bois

NoMAA Grantee Exhibition

Malcom X and Betty Shabazz Memorial Center

3940 Broadway (at 165th St)

Friday June13, 7-9on

image: Study for Boite du Bois, 2008, scanned negatives

 

Artists Statement

The project is a mixed media, public art installation that brings an art-enhanced experience of Nature to the Manhattan city dweller. Using photography and sound, the viewer is immersed in a formal translation of Nature as an art installation. The goal is to give the viewer an experience of art and an experience of Nature within the city to foster the moment at which art carries the viewer to an enhanced experience of life. At the same time, the piece moves the viewer to appreciate the connection to — or insistence of — Nature in even our urban lives.

The Boîte du Bois is a signpost, a reminder. The aim of it is not to serve as a substitute for Nature, but to encourage the city dweller to go back out into Nature, such as Inwood Hill Park, the only natural forest remaining in Manhattan; Fort Tryon Park; Bennet Park; Highbridge Park; Riverside Park and beyond.

I began looking at the natural environment, which is under threat, and the built environment, which is man’s adopted state of being, despite his inability to be not part of Nature. This confusion about being/not being part of Nature is something I view as significant in the current climate crisis and related to environmental degradation in general. How can we have such a strong misperception about our nature?