Sharon Kallis does wonderful sculptures from natural materials: dresses sewn from leaves, life-sized animals sculpted from twigs and so on. Lately she’s been engaging the community in constructing even more ambitious works.
You’re invited to join her for The Ivy Project this Saturday Feb 28th (and the last Saturday of each month until Nov/09) at the Stanley Park Nature House. There’ll be much weaving of ivy and joining of previously woven pieces.
This project is in cooperation with The Ivy Busters. Sharon says:
Since 2004, Ivy Busters have removed over 3.95 hectares of invasive plant material from Stanley Park. Now the public is invited to work with me in exploring English ivy as an art material, re-purposing this invasive weed into sculptures that will be returned to the forest as artificial nurse logs, bird habitats and crocheted anti-erosion bio netting.
The Ivy Buster’s efforts have turned Ivy deserts into a more natural forest state. I have a patch of Ivy desert in my property… wonder if I could convince them to come over?
If you’re interested in other works like this, check out MOPARRC. Sharon, Lois Klassen, and Madam Beespeaker are an artists’ collective working in the Means of Production Garden in Vancouver. It’s a communal garden with the aim of growing materials for artists to work with. Cool stuff!