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Ginny Ruffner
Reforestation of the Imagination
Reforestation of the Imagination combines traditional sculpture with augmented reality (AR). By using technology to overlay digital information onto sculptural objects, two disparate environments are portrayed.
The setting is an apocalyptic landscape far in the future. The initial environment consists of five landmasses, which support the glass stumps. Except for the painted shelf mushrooms and tree rings on the stumps and logs, the scene is colorless. The landmasses surround a sixth rocky outcropping that features a large fiberglass stump. The central stump sprouts beautifully grotesque bronze, then glass appendages. This improbable growth has survived the devastation to create a new botany.
Other than the central stump, the landscape appears at first glance to be barren. Yet, upon viewing the tree rings aided by AR technology a second environment is revealed. Plants appear (both fruit and flowers) which have evolved from existing flora. They have developed dramatic appendages and the skills necessary to adapt and flourish in this radically different environment. From accessing nutrients in ways that symbiotically improve their surrounding conditions, to cultivating protections from new threats, these adaptations are unexpected, beautiful, and optimistic. This is nature reimagining itself. The imagination cannot be exterminated. It just re-creates itself.
-- Ginny Ruffner
Installation created by Ginny Ruffner, in collaboration with Grant Kirkpatrick and with support of MadArt, Seattle. It was first exhibited at MadArt Studio in 2018.
Artworks courtesy of Ginny Ruffner Studio, dated 2017. Tree stumps are handblown glass with acrylic paint tree rings; "island" supports are plywood, low-density foam, fiberglass, epoxy, sand, pebbles, and acrylic paint; drawings are watercolor, pencil, and image transfer on paper. |