Flux is a participatory installation-- a collaborative gesture interconnects tears, shoreline, softening of molten glass, salt marsh and the encroaching tide, delivered to the public by Mariel Solomon and Yiyi Wei. The research evolves around a plant growing in salt marsh named Salicornia, found on the shore lines all over the world. Its ability to thrive under harsh salt water environment makes the plant acts as harbor to living being on the coast. It is consumable by human and other animals that live by the water. It is also slowly disappearing because of the rising sea level. Salicornia has another name-- Glasswort. Because the plant contains high sodium content when adapting to the salty environment, historically it was burnt in the process of glass making to create fluxes that soften the molten silica. The softened glass then can be used to blow or shaped. In this installation, hand blown tear bottles were given out to participants along side with instructions written on paper made by the artists from dried out Salicornia collected on the winter Rhode Island shores.
Flux
2019
Salicornia, written by Mariel Solomon and Yiyi Wei
overview
2019
Salicornia, written by Mariel Solomon and Yiyi Wei
Detail
2019
instruction for participants of Flux
2019