By Threaded pink and purple bugambilia flowers; fabrics and found objects create a colorful, emotional and flower-scented atmosphere in the Merlino student art gallery for Lindsey Pfeiler’s installation, “If You Think You’re Here, You’re Home Now.”
“Bugambilia, its always all over the place,” Pfeiler said. “We see them on the ground, we see them everywhere. We dont know where they came from, different bushes and areas.”
Pfeiler, a seventh year BFA drawing and painting and Comparative World Literature major, hosts the interactive installation of bugambilia flowers strung together as a representation of memories, the accumulation of those memories and how individual experiences are linked together.
Threads of bugambilia flowers hang from the ceiling like sheer curtains and expell a flowery scent throughout the gallery. The strings are hung on planks of wood that are suspended from the ceiling.
“It really became an experience to do it with family and friends,” Pfeiler said. “Each stream of flowers is different. Some are compressed really tight and some are looser.”
Among the many threaded bugambilia flowers there are also found objects. Coffee-stained tracing paper creates a shell around a light bulb that dims the light and helps reflect the pink and purple shades of the bugambilia flowers.
Fabric bags filled with paper, wire and other found materials also adorned the installation. The found objects were designed to represent “pockets of information” that our memory keeps after experiencing something, according to Pfeiler.
“The nice scent of the bugambilia petals adds another dimension to the installation,” said Anita Enriquez, a second year transfer student in the BFA program. “The shapes seem to compliment the natural structure. It creates an emotional state rather than a physical state.”
The installation is shaped like an hour glass to represent how memories and experiences accumulate over time. While walking through the pathway, the viewer touches the bugambilia and has to walk through the designed path while getting in touch with the petals and their scent.
The pathway calls for people to walk through it slowly, to not disturb the petals that look like they could fall off the string if a fly landed on it. It is meant to be experienced at a slow pace and to sit in the gallery while meditating.
The lighting creates a meditative environment where the brightness of the three bulbs are masked by fabric or paper and dimmed to the perfection. Someone could easily take a nap without the artist or anybody else noticing.
“I like the volumetric structure,” said Sarah Moore, second year BFA student. “It feels like a pathway that communicates nature but it is still man-made and human.”
Pfeiler began to create her installation in the summer and finished right on the deadline for her exhibit. She said that if it weren’t for the deadline, she would have kept creating threads of bugambilia petals forever.
This installation is a different body of work from what Pfeiler normally does but she said it has been a long time coming. She said that the installation is just what she does with paint on canvas.
The weekly student art galleries run Monday through Thursday from noon to 5 p.m. between the FA2 and FA3 buildings.
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