Blending fine art experimentation and scientific horticulture, (Re)place is a site-specific sculptural installation by artist Brandon Lomax in collaboration with the California Botanic Garden. Opening day is Saturday, November 13 – Garden hours are 8AM-5PM. Lomax’s clay works, both fully-fired and unfired, suggest the impermanent transience of population diversity within a given place. The fired works will serve as monuments to sustainability, while others represent the natural cycle of selection and species dominance. The installation runs through 6/1/22, when it will have evolved through three seasons, and transformed the public environment. Admission is free for members; for tickets: https://www.calbg.org/
Referencing multiple meanings of place, the exhibit becomes the site of restoration, substitution and belonging as it celebrates diversity in all forms: class, race, gender, sexuality and religion. The show reminds us that we are here because we are vital contributors. The artist’s hope is that we humans can celebrate our own biodiversity, and work together to create a more symbiotic relationship with our earth in this place, and every other.
Lomax will be on-site for opening day. He will facilitate several public workshops where attendees will be guided in creating small sculptures to add to (Re)place. During the seven-month tenure of the show, the elements will degrade the unfired sculptures back into soil. Participants are encouraged to meditate on time, and return to site to see the transformation of their sculptural works into native flora. Spots for the workshops are limited; to check availability: https://www.calbg.org/events-programs/events
Based in Southern California, Lomax is currently completing a Master’s degree in ecology at the Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland, where he is studying the formations, flora and fauna of the glaciated karst landscape in the west of Ireland.
https://www.calbg.org/exhibitions/brandon-lomax-re-place
Photo: (Re)place installation in progress
