claire hoch [projects | cv | bio | statement]
Tree of Heaven, 2007
Site-specific installation in abandoned church, Braddock, PA
Article in Pittsburgh City Paper
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Part of Salvage/Salvation: ARISE
An ongoing installation and performance project that explores the philosophical, emotional, and
material implications of re-use, discard, decay, and abundance.
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Process.
| Month-long process of working in the church (no electricity or running water)with community members of the once booming steel town located just south east of Pittsburgh. |
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Installation.
All found on location: Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima), soil, acrylic panels, wooden planks, water
Text displayed in the space.
The Tree of Heaven grows in the slums of America. The Tree of Heaven sends out shoots filled with toxins to prevent growing competition. The Tree of Heaven is an invasive foreigner. The Tree of Heaven is often described as smelling like body odor, peanut butter, and mustard. The Tree of Heaven is practically indestructible, able to withstand the harshest of urban and industrial conditions. However, it cannot thrive in a forest canopy where sunlight is minimized and water is prevalent. Once praised for its oriental ornamental value, the Ailanthus altissima, like Braddock, has lost its once ever-so-present appeal. Left to take over the abandoned lots of old industrial regions once urban now rural, the Tree of Heaven has an amazing transformative quality. The abandoned space of a sacred locale now serves as the setting for a reinvention and transcendence from what was and has become. |
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| replacement panels in windows were used to construct a terrarium | ||
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