"Landscape of the Half-Forgotten"

Artist Statement

“Landscape of the Half-Forgotten” is a site-specific installation that addresses the issues of climate change and mass extinction by presenting viewers with a fantastical landscape. This hanging landscape pulls inspiration from shared memories and cultural fantasies, and we hope to highlight all the beautiful things in the world we stand poised to lose.

Three individual artists participated in this project. John-Michael Korpal created creatures that resemble marine life from all recycled materials. Reminiscent of jellyfish, the fragile creatures will dissolve if submerged in water. To draw community participation in the project, Cortney Philip constructed plant structures based on responses to the prompt: “Tell me about your favorite tree when you were a kid.” And Megan Baldeshwiler made an elaborate root structure using an intuitive crochet method that incorporated lumps and twists until organic shapes emerged.

In his own words:

There was some kind of tree in my backyard when I was a kid I really liked because I could climb it. It had thick branches. Thick trunk. About half as tall as the house. I would climb it nice and high, sit there for about 10 minutes, get bored, come down, and hope that maybe the following weekend someone would be impressed with my tree climbing skills. To this day, I don't think anybody noticed or cared. 

In her own words:

"We didn’t do trees when I was a kid. It was all about grass and yards. I remember running and running through the tall grass by the ocean. My mom worked at a place called Crazy Lobster by the boardwalk. We would get sherbet and my dad would let us run around in what seemed like a giant field, and we would chant, 'Jungle, jungle, jungle.' I went back years later, and it was just a little patch."