Field Cushion is a landscape installation designed and constructed by fellow classmates Petra Bogias, Vikkie Chen, Andrea Soto, Lisa Wong, and myself. We designed the piece partly for our fourth year landscape course and partly for the Common Ground landscape art exhibition in which it took part. We approached the design by way of trying to create an artificial field of replicated objects that takes on many of the inherent characteristics of grass, but then at the same time defies some of those rules by allowing the form to become an architecture. The form is a long band that begins on the ground, later lifts up to become a wall, and finally becomes a canopy before falling back down to the ground. From the road the installation is an object inhabiting a field, but on approach from the other side it becomes a place to be inhabited. The lower parts of the sculpture offer comfortable seating to the visitor at varying levels, and the wall and canopy offer privacy and shade. The installation is comprised of thousands of strips of 1/2″ foam that are woven in a pattern across a 1/2″ mesh grid that is 3′ wide and 50′ long. When first installed, Field Cushion was white and stood in stark contrast to the landscape; however, over time the foam is discoloring and turning a golden brown, and insects and plants are beginning to inhabit the field. Before long the Field Cushion will not be distinguishable from the surrounding landscape.
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