Grant Park, Chicago, IL
May - October 2004
Chainlink, cedar benches, steel frames with astroturf, real plantings, and sod; 60 x 12 x 100 feet

My project, 'Second Nature,' reflects my continuing interest in the garden and the built American landscape as an extension of the domestic realm. The urban oasis provided by the city park, like a garden, is an extension of our domestic space and as such is contained and controlled in similar ways. 'Second Nature' incorporates live text growing through artificial turf and accompanied by the classic icon of domestic shelter, a house. The house formed of chain link affords a view in and through, though cannot physically be penetrated, suggesting our attempt to mediate between the inside and outside worlds. The text 'Second Nature is Home' is referenced by the Roman philosopher Cicero's term Alteram Naturam, refering to a landscape of elements that man has introduced to make nature habitable. The concept of second nature implies first nature, one before man's intervention and control, a physical world that was not 'home.'