Kudos to One of Solar One’s Own

A member of the Solar One family received high praise in the local press this week. Christopher Kennedy, ecological artist and Educational Coordinator at Solar One, was featured in yesterday’s New York Metro. CK’s “Urban Epiphyte” project caught the attention of New Yorkers throughout the city, as participants donned vegetation as part of their daily dress to draw notice to our local ecology. Epiphytes are organisms, mostly plants, that live by attaching themselves to other plants for physical support. Mainstays of rain forests such as orchids and bromeliads, which essentially grow in the upper canopy of their host trees, are the most well-known members of this classification.

Participants in the “Urban Epiphyte” project went through their normal routines wearing live plants culled by CK from Prospect Park in tool belts and fanny packs, documenting reactions and interactions with other New Yorkers. In one instance, a crowd gathered to help as one plant fell to the subway platform. Chris himself noted that the people he encountered treated his plants with the care normally reserved for pets and that many kept discussing the incident afterward. Ultimately, those fortuitous witnesses were inclined to consider aspects of their environments that they normally take for granted in a new light. Isn’t that the whole point to quality art?


Posted on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 3:44 pm | Tagged in Art, Energy Efficiency, Global Warming, Legislation, Native Plants, New York City, S1 in the News, Solar One | posted by Bill

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