Earth Day Installation

I’ve been asked to create an installation for the Simi Valley Town Centre to celebrate Earth Day. Each year an average family will use as much as 836 bottles of water. Most of those bottles end up as land fill.

I want to draw attention to the problem by suspending the bottles in the air from the branches of an ancient oak. I need to find several students who are committed to helping maintain sustainable resources who are willing to get involved with making the installation a reality. Four challenges face us:

First Challenge: to collect 836 empty (and clean) 1 litre water bottles, and remove their corporate labeling.
Second Challenge: add ashes and stones into each bottle
Third challenge: to suspend the bottles from a beautiful oak tree in the Simi Valley town centre, using fishing line
Fourth challenge: When it’s over, take it all down and store it.

I can’t wait to get started on the project. I’m interested in the potential here for the symbolism of the cycle of the elements: fire, air, earth and water. Each bottle (water) will contain ash (fire) stone (earth) and air. The world tree will suspend the bottles in the plane between the upper and lower worlds.

About pearce

Michael Pearce is an artist, writer, and professor of art. He is the author of "Art in the Age of Emergence."
This entry was posted in Bottle installations, Making work. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.