ADSILA

Medium: wood, fabric
Where you will see it: Heritage Garden

Artist statement: “Juan Angel Chávez relies on the ambience of a place to create immersive, site-specific experiences that expand the environment in which they will exist. Repurposed materials are hallmarks of Chávez’s work—finding new uses and shapes from discarded things, making new meaning. His temporary structures celebrate transitional spaces and times.”

About the artist: Juan Angel Chávez uses found materials to create large-scale sculptures and installations. He was an artist in residence at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and his work has been exhibited in the United States, Mexico, Europe, Thailand, and New Zealand.

The Rookery

Medium: willow saplings
Where you will see it: meadow west of Evening Island

Artist statement: “I enjoy identifying a provocative site and then constructing an artwork that excites the imagination of those who pass by. My choice of materials comes from my childhood spent in the woodlands of North Carolina, which are overgrown with small trees and where forests are a tangle of intersecting natural lines. I have always loved the drawing quality of the winter landscape in which one might imagine fantasy shapes drawn into the upper branches of trees. For me, tree branches and saplings also have rich associations with childhood play and with the shelters built by animals.”

About the artist: Patrick Dougherty has built more than 300 site-specific environmental works in the last 30 years, and his internationally acclaimed sculpture has been seen worldwide, from Scotland to Japan to Brussels, and throughout the United States.

Of Earth and Sky

In collaboration with Chicago poet Keli Stewart and featuring excerpts of poems written by Windy City Harvest participants and staff.

Medium: words, turf paint, plywood letters
Where you will see it: Esplanade, Bird Island, near Native Plant Garden, and Farm on Ogden

Jerram artist statement: “Of Earth and Sky is a large-scale installation of poetry created by the public through a process of workshops and online submissions. The poems are then curated and installed across multiple locations, forming a temporary sculpture trail where the public is able to discover and interact with the poetry, in a physical form.”

Stewart artist statement: “I collaborated with participants and staff in the Garden’s Windy City Harvest urban agriculture program to create poems that reflect their experiences in bringing food, health, and jobs to local communities. Excerpts from the poems will be featured in Luke Jerram’s installation and on chicagobotanic.org.”

Read featured poetry by Windy City Harvest participants & staff

Symbiosis

Medium: digital, acrylic
Where you will see them: Greenhouse Galleries, Circle Garden

Artist statement: “In developing this piece, I thought about the contributions the Garden has made to Chicagoland communities in city farms and learning opportunities. I recalled seeing a group of young children during a visit and their actions made it clear that their imaginations were soaring in this magical space and I could relate. In moments like these, I am reminded of nature’s symbiotic benefits. I hope this artwork inspires viewers to nurture nature. As technology guides us into the future, let’s remember all of the natural beauty that has carried us this far and informed many of the next grand ideas.”

About the artist: Sam Kirk is a Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist who explores culture and identity politics through her work. Her 60-plus murals and temporary installations have been featured nationally and internationally. She has been recognized for her public art career, as she intentionally uses public space to uplift and celebrate historically excluded communities.

Passenger

Medium: branches, rubber boots, steel cable, paint
Where you will see it: Sensory Garden, woodland path

About the artist: Cornelia Konrads’s site-specific sculpture and commissioned works have appeared in public spaces, sculpture parks, and private collections in Europe, Asia, Australia, America, and Africa.

Herbarium

Medium: dried flowers, copper wire
Where you will see it: Visitor Center

Artist statement: “Volunteers at the Chicago Botanic Garden have spent the past year collecting and preserving individual specimens from across the grounds for this site-specific installation. This artwork is dedicated to the Garden and its people, admiring all it does in the conservation of nature. Our relationship with nature has never been as fragile as it is today—we need these spaces to appreciate all we still have.”

About the artist: Rebecca Louise Law is best known for her colossal installations created with natural materials, namely flora. Since 2003, Law has collected flowers and remnants left by the flowers, using—and reusing—them in installations in the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

A Ladder for Creeping Charlie & Bittersweet Nightshade

Medium: welded steel, forged iron, black and gold paint
Where you will see it: Helen and Richard Thomas English Walled Garden

Artist statement: “Walls and barriers have been a part of human life since the dawn of time. Whether physical barriers like the Berlin Wall, the U.S.-Mexico border walls, the West Bank barrier, or systemic barriers like redlining and wealth gaps, barriers are designed to keep people/things in or out. I wanted to create a piece that thinks about what happens when the unwanted are supported to peek over the fence.”

About the artist: Faheem Majeed is an artist, nonprofit administrator, curator, and community facilitator. Majeed has been awarded  the Field and MacArthur Foundation’s Leaders for a New Chicago Award and the Joyce Foundation Award, among others. He currently is an assistant professor of art at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Plasticus porticus

Medium: recycled HDPE (#2) and PP (#5) plastics from the Garden and local households
Where you will see it:  Evening Island path

Artist statement: “Plasticus porticus was created by melting recycled plastic on a vaulted steel frame. The color transitions from black to purple, red, orange, and yellow as it moves upwards, representing ideas of growth and a brighter future. Passing through the structure will provide viewers a moment to contemplate the amount of plastic in the environment and where the plastic’s life cycle might end.”

About the artist: Cody James Norman is a Chicago-based artist, designer, robot handler, and plastic miner. His work has been exhibited in Chicago, New York, and Michigan, and he has lectured at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Birthday Party

Medium: salvaged lumber, salvaged theme park figures, lawn ornaments
Where you will see it: Top of Helen and Richard Thomas English Walled Garden across from English Oak Meadow

Artist statement: “A common theme of fairy tales, folklore, and children’s stories is to imagine the goings-on of animals when the humans aren’t looking. Birthday Party invites visitors to join a birthday picnic attended by a group of imaginary creatures. The animals are a magic-realism reference to stories such as Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, and Winnie the Pooh as well as the human activities of cultivation and bioengineering.”

About the artists: Gail Simpson and Aristotle Georgiades are sculptors who work individually and as part of the collaborative team Actual Size Artworks. Their public art has been on display throughout the United States. Simpson and Georgiades both teach at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Casa-Isla | House-Island

Medium: PVC, aluminum, latex paint, tree
Where you will see it: North Lake

Artist statement: “Expanding on my ongoing architectural interventions inspired by my native Puerto Rico’s built environment, Casa-Isla | House-Island considers the idiosyncratic architecture and designs of lower- and middle-class homes, redeploying those elements in architectural representations. The horizontal shapes floating on the water allude to the topography of the island of Puerto Rico and a notion of the house as a vessel. In this sense, the work becomes a reflection on states of isolation and the idea of homes as topographical spaces that contain private histories.”

About the artist: Edra Soto is a Puerto-Rican born artist, curator, educator, and co-director of the outdoor project space, The Franklin. Soto’s work has appeared at the Museum of Contemporary Art and in Millennium Park in Chicago, in addition to El Museo del Barrio in New York and other locations. The artist lives and works in Chicago.