[ stacylevy ] Wind Rain and Pollen

Fairmount Park, Philadelphia PA, 1990. 275’ x 150’: 3’ blown-glass rain gauges mounted on 18’ galvanized steel poles with 11’ pollen-yellow windsocks, 2’ x 2’ sandblasted slides of pollen samples set into 8’ x 4’ x 2’ steel booths, mowed trail connecting the four slide booths and five windsock/rain gauge poles. Installed from July to December.

This piece explores the natural forces which have created the site as we know it. The wind drives the rain, the amount of rain determines the vegetation and the pollen is transported on the wind. Images of magnified pollen samples from the surrounding plants were sandblasted onto the glass slides and held up in the air by the steel booths. The five windsocks showed the prevailing winds, while the rain gauges, calibrated to compare the local rainfall with other cities and biomes in the United States filled with rainwater over the course of 6 months.