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<Greener On The Inner Side>
Unbuilt Proposal for Wassaic Project, 2024
As you walk through the concrete lot, you know that this is where nature ceases and the architecture that is Wassaic Project begins. You walk up a small flight of steps and reach for the door, expecting to be greeted by the dimly lit Wassiac Project Store. You know you will walk straight to the reception desk, pay the suggested donation (to support!), and go straight into the Haunted Mill, where the art is. You may look at the merchandise on your way out later, but that’s not what you drove here for.
As you open the door, you are shocked to find the store overtaken by a garden growing in separate containers. These containers have legs. Their sides are clad with roof shingles. Some are stairs (for whom? You wonder. For the ghosts of the Haunted Mill?). There are meandering brick paths in this garden, where the merchandise sits. To see them up close, you shall walk on a brick path yourself (will I become part of this installation then? you ponder).
As you examine the garden, you realize each container houses a functioning sewage system. Water triples down from the top and eventually discharges at the bottom through the grates. Plants thrive in between. You notice the two modules by the windows do not have grates inside. They discharge outside to the porch - bridging the interior and exterior (that’s what I saw as I got to the door! You realize).
You are now submerged and have become part of the installation. To engage with the surroundings, you want to purchase something (perhaps that sticker pack right by the flowers?). You have also become very aware of the process of looking at merchandise, picking it up, and deciding whether or not to take it home — an otherwise rather ordinary activity that you perform daily.
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Images:
1. Proposal rendering: view from entrance
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