Captured & Escaped, 1995, wildflowers, fabric, cart, outdoor installation
This site-specific work was created for Fort York, a historic military site in Toronto. It played off the distinction between ‘native’ and ‘alien’ wildflowers, native wildflowers having naturally grown in an area and alien wildflowers being those which ‘escaped’ cultivation and became wild. I utilized the top of an abandoned well, located within the fort, to house the native wildflowers. The alien wildflowers were introduced in seedbags, sewn from colonial-like fabrics, and placed adjacent to the outside walls of the fort where they grew up the wall and down the outside embankment.

all images & text are copyright Panya Clark Espinal (except where noted)