Commissioned by Ragdale Foundation.
The brief calls for an installation space that would host outdoor performances in the summer months. With the temporal nature of the program and this year’s theme, Roots, we’ve decided to prioritize materials that would grow and eventually decay back into the environment.
The echoes of the ring consist of varying widths of plant beds, conceptualized as line weights on a drawing. Various native plant species determine the wall heights to create part and full plant enclosures. Our 2022 rendition of the Ragdale Ring echoes the original ring built by Howard Shaw, which itself is an echo of the outdoor theatre at Villa Ginanneschi-Gori. The stage wall, made with compressed earth block and reclaimed steel bars, is filled with sand and mulch. Surrounding the stage are rings offset and fragmented into reed walls and rooms.
Ragdale Ring
Lake Forest, Illinois, United States
In collaboration with Ahnaf Chowdhury, Anuradha Desai, Marda Zenawi
Completed