garden o1

15’ x 5’ . |. C O M M I S S I O N | 2 0 2 1

In 2021, I was hired by the international firm, Afkar Architects, to create art curated by SD Supply & Design, for 3 walls in a set of villas on Jumeirah Bay Island in Dubai. This is the story of the inspiration, fabrication, and installation of wall sculpture # 2, titled GARDEN o1.

The proposition was to create tactile, dimensional art, in a green garden palette, made up of materials inspired by botanical plant growth. The sculpture was to be installed in pieces directly onto a wall span measuring 15 feet by 5 feet. I was provided a set of Master Bedroom elevation drawings, which included the dimensions and location of built-ins, furniture, walls, windows, etc. in addition to all textile swatches to be used in the space.

I then got to work creating a design concept, material recommendations, a working color palette, and mapped out a timeline. Once all was approved, the contract was signed, and the deposit received, the real work began! The fabrication process was based on the idea of mass producing dozens of shallow plaster plates that represented miniature lichen gardens. I started with 21 unique hand formed clay bowls, which I used to cast 21 silicone molds, from which I poured in plaster to make dozen of plates.Then they went to my amazing team of helpers to be sanded smooth and painted.

Next was the color study and coming up with the exact palette of green hues that would work with the collection of fabric and textile samples I’d been provided. Once the color families were established, the plates were layered with material, a process that involved a series of steps of mixing, layering, and sprinkling in paint, pigment, metallic dust, liquid gold, crushed glass, and bit of metal, silicone oil, sand, and leveling gel. The goal was to recreate tiny fuzzy botanical landscapes, wells of mossy textured viridescent growth, surfaces of crusted leafless life spreading, and particles resembling lichen, algae, fungus, minerals, moisture, spores, molecules. It was a really fun, mesmerizing, experimental process.

Once cured, I laid the plates out in the wall design I’d sketched, digitized and had printed out at full scale, numbering each plate on its back and at its corresponding spot on the paper template. Next leg… packing, creating customs documents, labeling and shipping. Off to Dubai! Once the shipment made it thru customs and was delivered to the properties, it was time for my assistant Sara and I to head to the UAE for installation!

Once the boxes were unpacked, we got to work laying out the template first on the floor and then on the wall to make sure we had all the right pieces in all the right spots. We did this while the villas construction team, consisting of at least a hundred men, built us a scaffold. Finally - installation! It was a challenge creating objects to be installed on a wall (halfway across the world) that you have never met before, but armed with our markers, converters, extension cards, drill bits, drafting tape, heavy duty adhesive, fans, ventilators, Spotify playlists, Bose speakers, and a can-do attitude, we worked for two and a half days from sun up to sundown. Hot, dusty, exhausted, and with the second wall complete, we ramped up for WAVE o1, the third and final wall installation. Phew, let’s do this!