Public Art: Hanging Leaves

February 2019

Stoneware and fishing wire on trees

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As part of my Honors project in Environmental Studies, (Public Art in Outdoor Space: How Environmental Art Can Influence Notions of Place), I installed a collaborative, site specific piece of artwork in a public outdoor area in Oberlin, Ohio. This subtle installation of hanging clay leaves in a highly trafficked public courtyard responds to the seasons and a place-based environmental consciousness. 

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Responding to the site, I designed and made the clay leaves, and wrote a couple site-based prompts. My collaborators in the Pottery Co-op answered these prompts by carving into the leaves with their own interpretations of the site. After several practice installations of the leaves, in early February I hung them from the trees’ branches with thin fishing wire. The visual and physical aspect of the clay leaves hanging down from the thin branches, blowing in the wind, combines with the listening experience of hearing the leaves clinking against each other. When I made the leaves, they evoked the falling leaves of autumn and the changing seasons to winter, but their meaning shifted when the art was finally installed in February. 

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Over the two-week installation period, I conducted surveys and observed public behavior in relation to Hanging Leaves. By analyzing people’s responses to the artwork, I explored these questions: 

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• How does art focused on place reflect that place and the people in it?

• How does public art (re)connect people to their place?

• What role does public art play in engaging a wide range of people?

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With the evaluation of Hanging Leaves, I have learned about how public art in outdoor spaces can impact people’s perceptions of place and community, and I have explored how public art can offer new insights into placemaking in Oberlin by changing or strengthening people’s perceptions of place.