"All Branch from the Stem" was created in 1991 at Pyramid Gallery, Rochester, NY. The show was launched by the gallery in the aftermath of a huge storm that blew over and otherwise damaged many trees in around the town.
The entrance to the gallery was in the middle of the wall, and I build a long tunnel out of branches that cut the room in 2, and extended from the doorway to the back of the space.
I built 3 archways into the tunnel's right wall. These little arches led into a space that was sculpted into a natural environment. The walls were painted in earth tones and adorned with leaves and grasses. I wanted sound in the room and created a small cage into which I put about a dozen crickets. They did not utter a peep on opening night, but the gallery director told me that they did chirp for the rest of the month and drove them all crazy! After I left they found crickets running around in the gallery for a few months. Hey, I wanted to be remembered...mission accomplished. :)
I placed 3 robin's eggs in the bottom of the sculpture in this photo.
On the other side of the room, I built a text-based response to nature. I wanted the right and left sides of the gallery to correspond to the respective sides of the brain, so different ways of understanding nature.
Little nails stuck out of the wall in this corner and also in the corner across the room. Visitors to the gallery were invited to move letter tiles around to create poetry or thoughts of their own.