Introduction: Environmental Sculptures
by Anna Peach
The Introduction series began within my first year after moving to Hawaii. I moved due to my love of islands. There is something about islands which remains just beyond my reach. My entire adult life has been dedicated to the study of islands. I have done it on my own. I have taken in over seventy islands in fifteen countries, from the North Atlantic to the Indo Pacific Rim. I have moved through them with trust in myself and a need to express it. ‘Home’ has become a fluid concept. With time, I became aware of the categorization of life on islands. More specifically what was perceived as ‘belonging’ as opposed to ‘not belonging’ was often a shift of time and desire. The term Introduction was chosen to mark the start of my exploration in environmental sculpture while also referencing the ‘introduction’ of both plants and people to this island.
The awareness of flora defining place falls into many scientific categories, from Bio geographic diversity to Ethno botany. Island isolation makes for scientific hot spots. Hawaii is where the introduction of new species is ripe with controversy, making the news nightly. It was this that brought me to try to make sense of the spirit of a people and their land in terms of environmental sculpture. I place myself somewhere between Indigenous peoples and science: our link is passion for the land. I am on my own journey through time and place, but unlike science I do not deal in absolutes. I dwell in the hazy shadows of the displaced flora.
I have chosen to use ‘real’ clothing elements combined with naturally occurring plant materials. Garments were selected which contain and control the human form. Plants are used in various ways, some for dye and others for raw materials. I use ‘real’ objects which are ‘in Hawaii’ but not ‘of Hawaii.’ Noxious vines and invading grasses are often my selected medium. These unwanted floras were once coveted ornamentals and now poisoned so to control. Now overgrown in precarious places: swampy wasteland and highway ditches. Collection is the basis of the process. It is in those long hours I watch the light move, the subtleties of season, and I know the land like the back of my hand. Yet I am constantly reminded that these seeds do not belong here nor do I.
The plant choice also explores the human impact on a place. Each plant was brought here for a purpose, but now they have inherited the titles Alien, Invasive and Introduced species. Our romantic notions of landscape are rekindled nonetheless. I create beautiful pieces which lure you in but they also remind us that in a land where everything grows, control is tenuous. These plants remain uncontrollable, a reminder of our human limitations.
After selecting a species I reduce them to the core of their power: reproduction through seed. I leave the seed intact so that the element of time continues. These are not static sculptures easing themselves to decay, but rather they are waiting for renewal, to begin again.
This seed in waiting further pushes the element of control. The very construct of these sculptures requires government intervention prior to leaving the State. Control is interwoven at every level of these works. Some of these pieces will never be able to leave the Islands as their natural chemical make up is of HCN also known as cyanide. They are in essence trapped: they do not belong here yet they cannot leave.
The utilitarian element remains within the work. They are a functional wardrobe complete with clothing hangers. Yet their nature lends them to become garments for the spirits of the land rather than human counterparts. They float suspended in time and space. In my compulsion to reorder nature, the human struggle to come to terms with the temporal and eternal becomes apparent: to control what cannot be controlled. The end results are sculptures which give shape to that which our eyes cannot see.
Ethno botany is interwoven with contemporary fashion styles. Reclaimed corsets, girdles and shoes not only reference a ‘real’ person who may or may not be alive, but also a moment of transition in cultural change. These garments reference the impact of contact with Westerners, reminding us of the vague and often contradictory explanations of what the pre-contact people wore. They also reference my own observations in Melanesia where the modern ‘underwire’ stands in for the coconut bra of dubious lineage. In my sculptures the clothing items have also been permeated with the dye of other alien plants, so to remain foreign to the core.
The articles of clothing mix references to East and West. I struggle and perhaps come to terms with my role among the displaced. I attempt to discern the distinctions of place in a contemporary global culture. I risk romanticizing the alien species in the same manner of earlier introductions. I too must remain responsible for these works if I return them to the land, as the advance of the species becomes imminent.
Sculptures created from highly invasive plant materials are released through fire. Burning not only complements the temporal nature, but it is the only amicable solution for balancing the ecosystem, romanticism and spirituality. Other less invasive sculptures, embalmed in varnish or protective cases they become like specimens of contemporary Hawaii.
Earth, fire, wind and water: the four elements which push and pull upon the sculptures of Introduction. They are the constant yet ever changing forces upon my new island home. Living on the most volcanically active island on earth makes it only fitting that I confront some of life’s more difficult challenges - the ability to let go and accept change. I trust that there will be beautiful plants to surround ourselves with - even if they are a long way from home.
