ecological art
theatrical design
installation & studio art
nature’s play
about me
An ecological restoration performed over three years in Palmer Woods, Ithaca NY.
2022 - present
Materials: non-native brush (oriental bittersweet, bush honeysuckle, common buckthorn, bush privet, multiflora rose), planted native saplings (dogwood, spicebush, viburnum, red maple, white pine, white oak, serviceberry), regional wildflower seeds, handmade paper, foraged tea, reused muslin, wire fencing, indigo dye, solar power lights, collected trash, ceramic, dancers, players, dog...
A series of playful responses to overlooked land history on the overgrown ghost of a golf course “belonging” to Cornell University. After intensely harvesting non-native plants for one year, I sculpted brush piles as animal habitats for human eyes. Around these shelters, I devised original stories and dances inspired by the wandering plants’ characteristics, presented childhood games to reframe our sensory interaction with the outdoors, sculpted guardians and ceramics from plant matter and objects found onsite, and shared teas and communal meals, walks, meditations, and plantings. Supported by the Cornell Botanic Gardens and accompanied by a 60-page essay theorizing my role as an artistic invader, this commitment to creative/destructive remediation laid the groundwork for my current practice in botanic-artistic stewardship. Two years later, the woven structures shelter diverse animal life as the non-native species return: a living memorial to ecological imbalance.
Photographic Documentation:
Images of performances by Anson Wigner, Bradley Verhelle, and Shuqian Liu.
All others by Adam Washiyama Shulman.
Performance - Play
Performance - Dance
Performance - Sculptures and Objects
Structures - Wall
Structures - Shelter and Throne
Structures - Night
Site - Publics (Animal and Human)
Site - Change (Uprooting, Planting)
Site - Change (Earliest to Latest Contact)
Site - Change (Seasons on the Landscape)
Nature’s Play: Glimpses
Program Note:
This project depends on unceded land violently appropriated from the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ' nation.
Decades of neglect have led to environmental degradation hidden beneath verdant leaves.
What care can we perform alongside nature's play?
“Nature’s Play: An Invasive Performance” is a collaged representation of a year’s stewardship in Palmer Woods, Ithaca NY.
Overrun by non-native vines and brush, this ecologically degraded thicket has been the site of hours of caring destruction: cutting, pulling, entangling, uprooting, planting, and building. Our intention is to amplify the voices of endemic and invasive species by performing alongside them: a mode of reconsidering the effect of human apathy onsite. I realized quickly that I couldn’t speak for beings who had grown over measureless time. Their methods of survival enabled international journeys before their lives were ended at my hands. I could, however, enable a respectful human presence: to creatively reframe our surroundings as an act of care. To welcome performers and audience alike to invade and see what heals in our absence.
By arranging the uprooted plants and collected debris into sprawling sculpted brush piles, we have created the backdrop and featured “character” for performances in April 2023: a productive end to the lives of detrimental plants who settled by necessity. Our performative activations will challenge standards of natural care and the origins of invasive species. This approach to applied research is in alignment with the mission of the Cornell Botanic Gardens, the current overseers of this land: “to inspire people—through cultivation, conservation, and education—to understand, appreciate, and nurture plants and the cultures they sustain.”
Alternating between devised, improvised, site-specific, nonsensical, time-based, playful, meditative, and performative actions, we embody the twisted and unpredictable spirit of our surroundings. Forming a performative environment from scratch is a creative dream. Effort and budget are redirected toward replanting instead of rehearsing in windowless rooms and building disposable scenery. To respect indigeneity and recall earnest perspectives lost in childhood, we assume our roles in nature's play. Like it or not, I have taken a side in a struggle between nurturing and death. This process, culminating tonight, strives to reconcile this conflict by caring for the past and future of our land. Following our play, the course of growth chosen by the woods will ultimately reframe our momentary activations.
Adam Washiyama Shulman
April 10th 2023
Your Players:
Adam Shulman
Molly Hudson
Sofia Pereira
Wulfgar Ramsey
Isa Goico
Sean DuMont
Ella Johnson
Emily Hernandez
Erin Giombetti
Khaly Durst
Isabel Padilla Bonelli
Coby Sontag
John Colie
Oliver Stern
Anabella Maria Galang
Adam Bruynestein
Gillian Harril
Sprocket
Josue Herrera
Emad Jahmi
Paige Pepling
Leo Liang
Lindsey Potoff
Bradley Verhelle
Cook Shaw
Cici Liu
Shania Bravo
Shuqian Liu
Gwyneth Song Gravador
Priska Lambert
Taylor Bazos
Aishah Alhady
Ela Malaz
Yan Jiang
Sarah Bewley
Jonah Ginsberg
Ashley Bao
Belle McDonald
Tim Ostrander
Lisa Boquist
Sarah Bernstein
Savannah Relos
Theo Black
Jason Simms
Paul Ramirez Jonas
Emilio Rojas
Anamariah Knox
Beth Milles
Julianne Hunter
P. Byron Suber
Youngsun Palmer
Gary Gabisan
Pam Lillard
Sarah Bauch
Martha Walker
Daniel Shulman
Kaori Washiyama
Jules Ginenthal
Todd Bittner
Emily Detrich
Brandon Hoak
Anson Wigner
"Nature's Play" is supported by the Cornell Rural Humanities Initiative from an award by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Department of Performing and Media Arts, and the Cornell Botanic Gardens.
Directions: Walk up the hill!
April 14, 15, 21 & 22 at 7 PM. In the event of heavy April showers, performances will be altered.
Please dress for the weather, and consider bringing a camping chair or picnic blanket to your comfort!
Parking available at A-Lot. Drop off on Pleasant Grove Road.
TCAT Bus Routes: 37 & 81 to Pleasant Grove @ Jessup, 30, 81 & 90 to Jessup @ Pleasant Grove, 81 @ A-Lot
Resources:
- Cornell AIISP Indigenous Dispossession
- Morrill Hall and Land-Grab Universities
- Cornell's Land Acknowledgement
- Native Land Map
Resources in Haudenosaunee history:
Information on non-native plants and stewardship from the perspective of Western botany:
- Cornell Botanic Gardens Invasive Plants FAQs
- Cornell Botanic Gardens Non-Native Plant Policies
- Cornell Cooperative Extension (Tompkins County)
- Finger Lakes Native Plant Society: Invasive Species
- New York State Invasive Species Information
- United States Invasive Species Info
murky pool in the little gorge behind my apartment