Ground Covers: Spring/Summer “Contain, Maintain, Sustain”

Rosslyn, Virginia | May 2011

Ground Covers was commissioned for Contain, Maintain, Sustain, an exhibition at The Artisphere which focused on the meanings of sustainability. By contrast to rural New Hampshire, in the urban core of Rosslyn, Virginia, the dominant materials—glass, aluminum and concrete—are inert, lacking life and sensuality. To align the work with this urban environment, five of the plaster impressions from New Hampshire were recast in aluminum to replace similar-sized concrete pavers covering the gallery’s oversized terrace. Documents of another time and place, these miniature landscapes invited touch and challenged us to consider the earth’s mutability, ongoing transformation, and natural process, environments and seasonal changes that stimulate our own sensory awareness and experience of place.

Partners: Mike Fisher, Fabrication Assistance; Lincoln Mudd, Aluminum Casting; Curators: Welmoed Laanstra, Sara Reisman, and Ernesto Santalla; Support: Montgomery Community College Artist-in-Residence (A.I.R.) Program, Artisphere, Washington Sculptors Group and the Washington Project for the Arts