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Hi all. I’m posting the pdf of the piece I recently did for Cabinet Magazine. Check out the great art work by Allan Espiritu, Kat Dee and Hugo Bastidas! the link is here: DemarayE_Nov6_Cabinet_2011?12

Hi all. I was just interviewed by Scientific American on the Lichen for Skyscrapers Project. The link is below. As part of the project update I did an invintory of

There is a great Lichen Project article at the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts with some really good photos by Elizabeth Cheviot of the walking tour last Fall:

http://www.sustainablepractice.org/2011/12/elizabeth-demarays-lichaffiti-3/

Hi all. I was just interviewed by Scientific American on the Lichen for Skyscrapers Project. The link is below. As part of the project update I did an invintory of current lichen gardens and slurry plantings. Images from my planting checks are above and below.

The blog post on the Scientific American article can be found at: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/11/29/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-no-its-reindeer-chow-a-n-y-c-artist-uses-lichen-as-paint/

I am thrilled to report that the “Lichen for Skyscrapers Project” was featured as part of New York’s Art in Odd Places Festival from Oct. 1-10 and is currently on view as a site-specific installation on 14th Street between Union Square Park and the Hudson River. A self-guided walking-tour map and downloadable brochure, detailing the installation on 14th Street, can be found here.  A Rutgers Focus news release states:

Lichen is a versatile combination of fungi and algae and can grow vertically on pourous surfaces.

In this era of environmental consciousness, many buildings are being outfitted to “go green.” A Rutgers–Camden professor is taking the term quite literally.

Elizabeth Demaray, an associate professor of fine arts, is cultivating lichen on the sides of New York City skyscrapers to counteract the lack of native vegetation found in the city. Her “Lichen for Skyscrapers Project” was featured as part of New York’s Art in Odd Places Festival from Oct. 1-10 and is currently on view as a site-specific installation on 14th Street between Union Square Park and the Hudson River.

“Metropolitan centers figure into local temperatures in an interesting way,” Demaray says. “They are sometimes referred to as ‘urban heat islands’ because they create heat and they trap heat. A large part of this process is due to the materials that we build with and the actual architecture of the buildings that we create.”

Demaray says one of the ways to reduce heat in these cities is to cultivate lichen, which forms a protective barrier, insulating its supporting building from harmful elements. It can lower cumulative temperatures by absorbing sunlight and reflecting heat due to its light color palate while making oxygen and creating green space on the sides of buildings. 

Lichen Project Walking Tour

I am pleased to announce that the Lichen for Skyscrapers Project will be exhibited as part of this year’s Art In Odd Places Festival, October 1-10, 2011. Showcasing site-specific art from Avenue C to the Hudson River along 14th Street in New York City, information on Art in Odd Places can be found at http://www.artinoddplaces.org/

Lichen for Skyscrapers, projected planting

Lichen for Skyscrapers seeks to ameliorate the lack of native vegetation found in global cities by culturing lichen on the sides of skyscrapers and other manmade structures. Lichen, a wonderfully adaptable plant, can grow vertically on many porous surfaces. Once propagated, it forms a protective barrier, insulating its supporting surface from harmful elements while serving to lower the cumulative temperature in metropolitan centers. This, along with the ability to withstand extreme drought, makes lichen an almost ideal form of “houseplant”. As part of AiOP: RITUAL the Lichen for Skyscrapers Project proposes lichen planting as a new ritual for the urban dweller–one that seeks to renew nature in an inner-city context.

In support of growing these life forms on buildings, I will be holding a walking tour/workshop on lichen care, propagation and placement on October 8^th, 2011. The walk will tour mature lichen gardens that are in current cultivation. The workshop part of the tour will cover the best places to plant lichen, local lichen varieties and the benefits of lichen propagation. In addition to handing out an informational brochure detailing the basics of propagation, I will be giving out sample baggies of lichen slurry to anyone who is able to oversee an urban planting.

As a city dweller or worker, all one needs to propagate lichen is a window that opens a few inches, a surface composed of granite, limestone, wood or terracotta and a spray bottle. The plant itself, in a slurry of natural protean substrate, can easily be spread on any variegated surface that receives sunlight.

The wonderful thing about planting lichen slurry, a combination of lichen powder and milk protean, is that it is not graffiti. It is a completely natural process and, if a planting does not take, it will dry up and blow away to possibly re-propagate itself in other naturally favorable habitats.

A video will be produced featuring time-laps footage of the 14^th Street plantings and walking tour. For more information on the Lichen for Skyscrapers Project, please feel free to e-mail me at moc.gnirpsdnimnull@yaramedzile.

Giant-sequoia wearing a sweater

Welcome to the end of the semester! Please check the final schedule to see when your classes meet for finals.