‘Message from the Earth’ art installation helps soothe finals-week tension.
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During a frantic finals week, hundreds of Cornell students found a little peace and serenity thanks to an art installation in the Mann Library lobby.
The living artwork, A Message from the Earth, featured a larger-than-life portrait of Mohandas Gandhi rendered on two 4- by 8-foot living-grass panels.
Students in HORT 2010, The Art of Horticulture, developed the theme and chose the image. “They wanted to convey a message of environmental sustainability along with a message of hope – not doom and gloom,” says Christine Hadekel, the artist and educator in the Department of Horticulture’s Garden-Based Learning Program who coordinated a team of contributors to the project, along with the Institute’s youth program leader, Marcia Eames-Sheavly.
To some, Gandhi might seem a surprising choice for an environmental theme. “But it was Gandhi who reminded us that ‘The earth, the air, the land and the water are not an inheritance from our fore fathers but on loan from our children,’” Hadekel points out. “And ‘to be the change that we want to see in the world.’"
To create the image in an indoor setting, Hadekel and Eames-Sheavly modified a technique used by British artists to make images outside on lawns. First, Hadekel built the panel frames and stretched burlap over them. Then she sprinkled grass seed on the burlap and placed the panels under a misting system in a greenhouse. After the grass sprouted and covered the panels in a carpet of green, Hadekel moved them to a “darkroom” constructed in the Mann Library lobby. She then projected a high-contrast, black and white, negative image of Gandhi onto the grass with an LCD projector for more than a week.
Where the light hit the grass, it stayed green. The grass that did not receive light withered, forming the image. When the darkroom curtains came down unveiling the work, Hadekel and Eames-Sheavly furnished the space with a rug and cushions, creating an inviting, contemplative space for students in front of the portrait.
Even before the image formed fully, students lined up to peer at the eerily lit portrait through peep holes cut in the curtains. Anticipation filled the air, along with the earthy aroma of the growing grass wafting through the library’s lobby.
Howard Raskin, Mann Library’s head of operations and outreach, marveled at the students’ reactions when he watered the work twice a day. “They had this sense of wonder watching Gandhi grow in the grass,” he recalls. “It really generated a lot of interest and made the library a more inviting place to be.”
“The whole thing worked on many different levels,” says Hadekel, pointing out that the picture of Gandhi was taken in Mumbai (then Bombay) in the ‘40s, and this installation took place while the terrorist tragedies that took place there during Thanksgiving were still fresh in mind.
The installation also served as a pilot for an activity in the Garden-Based Learning Program’s forthcoming Dig Art! curriculum for children and youth educators, to be launched next fall.
A Message from the Earth was funded in part by the Cornell Council for the Arts with support from Mann Library and the Department of Horticulture. Raskin and the Mann Library staff were instrumental in planning and maintenance of the installation. J.C. Mosher and Ron White constructed the darkroom, turf specialist Frank Rossi consulted on technical aspects of the project, and Sarah Richards-Desai contributed design and construction help.
Building the panels.
Finished panels.
Seeding panels.
Grass growing on panels under misting system in the greenhouse.
Building the "darkroom."
Installing the panels.
Image projected onto panels.
Students view developing image through peep holes.
Christine Hadekel, Marcia Eames-Sheavly and Howard Raskin chat in front of the finished image.