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 revolves around a plant, named Salicornia, that grows in salt marshes found on the shorelines all over the world. Its ability to thrive under harsh saltwater environments makes the plant act as harbors to living beings on the coast. It is consumable by humans and other animals living by the water. It is also slowly disappearing due to 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 can be used to blow or shape. In this installation, hand-blown tear bottles were given out to participants alongside instructions written on paper made by the artists from dehydrated Salicornia collected on the winter Rhode Island shores.
Flux
Material: Handblown glass, handmade paper, watercolor on glass, poem engraved on glass, metal
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