Casa-Isla | Chicago Botanic Garden
As part of a multi-commissions project in the occasion of Chicago Botanic Garden 50th Anniversary
Flourish: The Garden at 50
Chicago Botanic Garden
May 13 to September 25, 2022
Casa-Isla | House-Island, 2022
“Casa-Isla | House-Island” considers the idiosyncratic architecture and designs of Puerto Rico’s working-class homes, redeploying those elements as architectural representations. The horizontal shapes floating on the lagoon of the Chicago Botanic Garden allude to the topography of the island of Puerto Rico and notions of the house as a vessel. In a sense, the work becomes a reflection on states of isolation and the idea of homes as topographical spaces that contain private histories. A visual element that anchors my house-like structure to this specific garden environment is the tree, a shrub sourced and lent by the Chicago Botanic Garden, to create a heart for the structure. Using house paint, I selected a three-color palette, applied with rollers, and blended like watercolors. The choice of these colors is the result of my reflection on the garden and its natural surroundings.