Inspiration and Processes:
“a-Roma” is a dialogue between withering indigenous organisms and artificial rubbish. This impression of Rome features fragrant plants pulled from the marshy banks of the Tiber. A rickety assemblage of discarded wood and metal spirals around, suspended by plastic police tape. The city is littered with such boundaries to prevent tourists from accessing constructions and ancient sites; the flimsy remains of a flimsy law-enforcement system entrusted with maintaining an entire civilization’s past and present. Rome takes pride in its layers of rich history, yet natural growth will eventually transform all into new ruins. My plants rise from a vase resembling a fluted column. In the interior artistic context, such wild plants die; anticipating this, I stripped half of the wormwood leaves and pressed them in a concoction of olive oil, honey, and orange peel to create a perfume in an ancient technique. The stimulating aroma is displayed on the floor where an airy cloth descends, connecting the collaged present with a distilled memory of the past. Only the perfume survived the installation and returned to the US with me.