Garden Fate Installation and Viewing this Thursday

Garden Fate
Michelle Levante
www.michellelevante.com
[email protected]
Part of:
DEMOLITION
An exhibit of art that explores destruction and impermanence
“Art Across the Plaza” windows - corner of Grove Street and Montgomery Street, Jersey City, NJ (Opposite City Hall Plaza)
Presented by Pro Arts Jersey City
June 21 - July 12 2007
Curated by Eileen Ferara
Artist Reception July 12, 2007 6-8:00p.m. Part of the Reception will be a screening of the time-lapse film Garden Fate. If you are unable to attend, the film can be seen at my website : www.michellelevante.com/movieslevante.html
Garden Fate is an installation comprised of dirt, stones, logs, rusted objects, bones, refuse from Jersey City waterfront, mulch, gourds, vegetables, mushrooms, moss, branches, green peppers, flowers, grass, broadleaf plantain, field bindweed, hedge bindweed, morning glory, purple basil, garlic mustard, Virginia creeper, common pigweed, ragweed, tree of heaven, etc……
Garden Fate was started in early June in the storefront window of a building in Downtown Jersey City. The building is set to be demolished by this summer and appears as part of a larger exhibition called Demolition.
This carefully constructed “garden” will only exist for a month or so, and the intention is to see a sudden burst of forced nature, a lush and overgrown greening of the window. The garden will be left to be demolished along with the building. As the weeks have gone by new plants and elements are added which relate much like a story, with a beginning, a lush middle, a climatic red phase, then a dying phase. When faced with eminent death, life rushes forward, manically catching it’s last gasp before the end. That is what I hope to capture with the fast growing weeds and grasses, the struggling vines latching onto anything nearby and the bell peppers that turn bright red before finally turning black and rotting. The public that normally walks by these windows will be able to view the drama unfold. But a time-lapse digital camera is also set up in the garden to capture the growth and changes. Different angles and stages will be recorded creating a final digital film of the fate of the Garden. Segments of the movie and images of the installation can be viewed at
http://www.michellelevante.com/movieslevante.html