The Song of Earth emerged from time spent in nature, where being among trees and birdsong became a mindful and embodied experience. The installation is conceived as an immersive, performative environment that invites viewers to slow down and engage sensorially with their surroundings. Rather than representing nature, the work seeks to recreate the feeling of being within it, encouraging reflection on our relationship with the natural world and the need for its care.
The installation brings together drawing, sound, movement, and viewer interaction. Audience movement activates subtle shifts in sound and motion, making the work responsive and participatory. Mulberry paper is central to the piece due to its dual quality of fragility and strength. As a handmade, translucent material, it allowed for layered mark-making while remaining responsive to air, touch, and environmental conditions, making it especially suited for working outdoors.
The charcoal drawings were produced in a forest by wrapping long sheets of mulberry paper around tree trunks and allowing the surface of the bark to guide the marks. Through both gentle and forceful movements, the paper recorded traces of the trees, transforming the drawings into material imprints of bodily gesture and environmental encounter. The installation also had a sound and movement element that triggered from the movement of the viewer making it an interactive performative piece.
The Song of Earth project exemplifies my sustained engagement with ecocentric, environmentally responsive materials and site-specific processes. This project demonstrates how I approach nature as an active collaborator and forms an important foundation for my current research, which continues to explore materiality, process, and ecological awareness within new environments.
