COLLABORATION WITH MICHAEL ASBILL:
ADAPTING TO TREE SPEED
CANO, NY, fall 2023 
 
Twelve emergency blankets were hand-stitched with lines following the water transportation system, or xylem, of trees, and augmented with sewn-on cuffs, from which partially braided balls of yarn can unwind. We have used them with groups of participants in different sites to sit or lie entangled with each other and our environment while wrapped and sheltered in these bark-blankets. Participants slow and quiet down, experiencing themselves here now, enmeshed with all that is.

In this exhibition, these adapter blankets are pitched into a playful fort, an adaptive encampment of sorts. Held up by inverted stems of sumac, an early succession forest plant, the installation’s interior invites visitors to settle into and experience this symbolic forest structure.

The video Shapeshifter presents a layered conversation between a tree, a yoga instructor, and a newscaster, negotiating combustion and exchanges of carbon and oxygen at body, ecosystem- and industrial scales as we observe pieces of charred paper transitioning from carbon to ash.

Video: Shapeshifter (2019) was collaboratively created by Michael Asbill, Andrea Frank, and Amanda Heidel.
Camera and Editing: Andrea Frank
Sound: Jerry Adler and Andrea Frank
Voices: Tree - Michael Asbill, yoga teacher - Amanda Heidel, newscaster - Andrea Frank

Installation components: Adapter Blankets (2022-ongoing) 12 Wool emergency blankets, yarn Sumac trunks and branches

 

See here for our collaboration on Heeding Impulse and Time Drawing.