Project Description::

This self-guided project will be presented at the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) event at Conflux HQ on Thursday, September 11 from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM.

A park by the East River is an evocative site for a dérive into a psychic zone created by vestiges of the industrial past, present construction projects, urban activities, rapid gentrification, and traces of the natural world. Participants are invited to observe the plants growing in the park and imagine plants that may once have grown there. Rare and endangered plant species, possibly native to this habitat, are represented on small painted rocks and pieces of rubble which will be placed around the park. An audio guide and a map will help participants locate these small effigies of disappearing life. A field guide will identify some of the weeds and wildflowers actually growing in the park. The audio and field guides and the map can be downloaded from the project’s blog http://BrooklynPlantwalk.blogspot.com. During the festival I will continue to paint endangered species in the park. Visitors are encouraged to suggest plants that I could include in this botanical documentation. By observing the plant life in the park and by imagining varieties that could be there but aren’t, perhaps the dérivists will have an altered perception of the site. Perhaps they will see a messy growth of weeds and wildflowers as a satisfyingly complex mini-ecosystem. Perhaps they will notice how our perception of a space is influenced by the way plants grow in it.

The BrooklynPlantWalk blog features a slideshow of images of native Brooklyn flora taken on the streets, in parks, anywhere weeds and native plants can grow. Participants’ are invited to email their pictures of native Brooklyn flora, along with their comments and observations, to BrooklynPlantWalk@gmail.com for inclusion on this slideshow.

Website: http://BrooklynPlantwalk.blogspot.com