Natural Stories

Natural Stories is a site-specific installation that emerged from conversations with the community about their intention to create a space to gather and commune with nature.

The installation happens in conversation with the site of the flower park Common Ground. The park itself, organized by the Grand River Block Club, has formed organically in response to the existing characteristics of the land.

Natural Stories intends to celebrate this unique moment in space and time, where the community and the land interact, when the community is intentionally recognizing their presence, and their influence, in the vast history of this particular land.

The forms are intentionally in conversation with both tree and human forms, emerging from the ground, spread in a dynamic way, as to invite those who walk by to come in. They also create an invisible arch, configuring the entrance to the inner park area.

The materials were chosen intentionally to show the human artifact, clearly designed, but still integrated with its natural pre-existing surroundings.

The 3-D printed tops are filled with letters from the community to the land, written during a gathering and walk meditation in the space of the park early this Spring. Nur and Simone then took the letters and “stitched” them together at the studio, as in a quilt of intentions lining the capsules.

The translucent tops are intended to create a sense on “mystery,” of things not totally known, and also of possibility, where each one of us can project our own stories and ideas.