This
was a series of site-specific sculptural installations executed at Carnegie
Mellon University, in the central hall of the College of Fine Arts building
designed by architect Henry Hornbostle.
The first installation was placed over the plan of a gothic cathedral inlaid
in the marble floor. A mound of dirt filled out it’s profile. This is
on axis with both the main entry in one direction, and the long hall in the
other. At the beginning of the month long project, garlic cloves were placed
in the dirt. Through the course of the month they began to sprout, reaching
their full height of 18 inches. Domestic window screens were painted white and
assembled in the center to form a tower. Over the course of the month this this
receptacle was gradually filled with the trash produced by the building in which
it sat. The dirt, garlic and trash each gave off a separate and specific small
that could not be ignored.
During the second phase of the installation this sculpture was dismantled and
the dirt and garlic plants were spread throughout the entire hall, on cornices,
on ledges, marble statues, any horizontal surface. For a month this dirt and
the plants growing in it invaded the Neoclassical space, simulating it’s
inevitable decay and future ruin.
On the final day of the installation, pieces of trash claimed from the building
were assembled in the center of the hall. All of the pieces of trash were receptacles
or containers (milk cartons, soda cans, bottles). People passing through the
space were invited to take a container and fill it with dirt and one of the
plants growing in the space. Slowly over the course of the day, the dirt, plants
and trash finally disappeared. One by one people gathered them up, brought them
home and scattered them throughout the city.