collaboration with Meng Li

fall + leaves + fires is an installation highlights the fragile mutability of leaves during the fall, using nature itself to comment on some of its qualities. The goal was simple: to take advantage of the beautiful red, purple, yellow, and brown leaves that are found during the short window between fall and winter and use them as pixels to create the effect of a mound of leaves on fire. People would see something (a mound of leaves) that they might see in the natural world (a park for example) and then, upon closer inspection, see that the leaves were in a gradient and in a shape that resembled flames.



In order to do this project, Meng and I used four garbage bags full of leaves imported from the lovely parks of Prospect and Washington Square. We tried to pick lots of red, yellow, orange, purple and brown leaves that would be in shades of colors that would be in the palate of fire. We also used lots of brown leaves to make the mound of the floor. In order to suspend the leaves to create the flames, we used a golf practice net to affix the leaves onto, creating a 2D plane of leaves on fire that traversed the mound and was accessible from many angles.


Meng's rendition of the project outdoors