Imagine / Align

Contact:
Email: imagine/align@umich.edu
Web: www.imagine-align.org

Michigan Artist Creates Spring Exhibition of 20,000 Daffodils Planted in a Single Line

One-Half Mile of Flowers to Bloom for the second show in April at Ann Arbor’s Nichols Arboretum

With the help of more than 150 volunteers from the community, Michigan artist Susan Skarsgard created an art installation of 20,000 daffodils that, while in bloom, helped visitors reflect on the borders that separate and lines that connect in the world.

The project, called “Imagine/Align,” is located at the Nichols Arboretum, University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. Skarsgard, who conceived the idea and secured the help of the volunteers, hopes the project will provoke a rethinking of the idea of lines, borders and imposed definitions.

“For me, this line is not a decoration,” says Skarsgard, artist/designer, lecturer and teacher. “It’s a metaphor for the walls and fences that we, as human beings, impose on our earth in an effort to separate, define, protect or claim.

“The blooms will return for years to come and will change according to the pattern of nature, eventually erasing any trace of human intervention.

“My hope is to bring the community here for reflection, contemplation and an opportunity to assign their own meanings to this panoramic visual questioning,” she says.

The first opening celebration featured remarks by UM President Mary Sue Coleman, Nichols Arboreturm Director Bob Gress and Artist Susan Skarsgard on Saturday, April 24, 2004.

The planting took place over 10 days in October 2003. It required teams of volunteers that planted the continuous one-half mile long line of Narcissus Marieke bulbs. The volunteers’ reasons for participating and the meaning they derived from the experience reflects their diverse and thoughtful participation.

One of the volunteers, local artist Joanne Daniels, says, “I was honored to be asked to join in the planting effort. The superlative creative quality of Susan’s art was the major factor that compelled me to participate. And the daffodil is my all time favorite flower. It signals spring, new life, hope. Its color is spectacular and its smell is earthy and fresh.

Skarsgard is a lead product designer at General Motors Design Center where she designs emblems and nameplates for GM vehicles. Imagine/Align is a synthesis of her interests and areas of expertise: first, as a calligrapher where her use of line and form define the words and images that occur in her artwork; and, second, as a devoted gardener. She maintains a garden on the Old West Side in Ann Arbor and has a deep connection to Nichols Arboretum since first visiting in 1971.

Skarsgard sees community involvement as central to the project and devised ways for anyone not part of the initial planting to participate. Her website — http://www.imagine-align.org — featured images of the planting, as well as ongoing visual documentation of the project leading up to the bloom. And the Nichols Arboretum invites anyone interested in supporting the project to make a tax-deductible contribution (made out to Nichols Arboretum) and sent to: Imagine/Align Fund, Nichols Arboretum, University of Michigan, 1610 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1700.

For Erica Brehmer, a student at the University of Michigan, helping to plant the bulbs gave her an opportunity to say “thank you” to her parents. “My parents are landscapers and I support any effort to beautify the earth. I wanted to be able to show my parents how much I appreciate their work — and how their work allows me to go to college and have a good life.

“I just think that they’ll be very proud of what we accomplished and I can’t wait to show them the finished result. I am also proud of myself... it makes me happy to think about we’ve done. And I cannot wait to see what it looks like in April.”

About The University of Michigan’s Nichols Arboretum:

The “Arb” is a 123 acre “living museum” nestled in the hills adjacent to UM’s central campus. The 1906 historic design by O.C. Simonds celebrates its dramatic natural topography. Long views are framed by the Arb’s collection of Michigan native plants and plants from around the world. For more information about the “Arb” check out its website: www.umich.edu/~wwwarb/index.html

About the Daffodil type:

The name of the daffodil planted in this project is Narcissus Marieke. Each bulb has two huge, upward facing flowers with a vivid, yellow perianth and a long, dark yellow trumpet. They grow 18” to 20” in height. The line in the project has 10,000 bulbs (20,000 blooms) planted close together 6”to 7” deep over approximately one-half mile in length. To be classified as a Trumpet Daffodil, the flowers must have trumpets as long as, or longer than, the petals. They are much loved for the fact that deer and rodents do not like to eat them and that they have a long blooming season with large, bold flowers. Blooming time is late April.

..................................
Imagine/Align Q & A

What's this art installation about?

Imagine/Align is about connection, separation and contemplation. The artist’s intent was to engage the viewer to reflect on the inherent notions implied by this simple, graphic, ephemeral yellow line “drawn in the sand.”

It is also about community, which includes the people who volunteered to plant the daffodils. Their reasons for spending a cold day on their knees in the mud are as varied and diverse as their ages, their backgrounds and interests. Some of their thoughts are included on the volunteer page of the project website: www.imagine-align.org

What was the impetus behind this project?

The idea came to the artist when she saw a map showing the location for the fence that Israel is building between themselves and the Palestinians. Thoughts of the Berlin Wall, the Maginot Line, the Belfast "Peace Lines", the Cyprus "Green Line" and the Great Wall of China came to mind. Her first question was, “Has the idea of a ‘wall’ ever really permanently worked? How much wasted energy and money will be invested in another border that will eventually go back to the earth in generations to come? How long before its ruins are the only vestige left to our inability to think differently about war and peace?”

An idea emerged: to metaphorically draw an arbitrary line through an open landscape using flowers to delineate the border. It would come up, bloom, and die away every year in its own natural rhythm and change over time — mutating, breaking apart in some places, and becoming thicker in others. It becomes its own ruin and our reminder of hubris and borders.

What does its creator hope people will take away from this project?

She hopes they will take the time out of their lives to come and see the line -- that they reflect and develop their own meanings from it. And she hopes they will see it as a piece of contemplative art that is now a part of the landscape of our community.

Where's the installation taking place?

It is at the University of Michigan Nichols Arboretum— a 123 acre "living museum" in the heart of the city of Ann Arbor and much beloved by its residents. It has rolling hills and long dramatic vistas with a vast collection of Michigan native plants and plants from around the world. It was the artist’s first choice for where she wanted the Imagine/Align project to happen.

Why did the Nichols Arboretum agree to host this installation?

Part of the Arb’s mission is to provide a place where varied disciplines, including the visual arts, can come together to explore the stewardship of urban and natural systems. Also, Skarsgard was in her final year of graduate studies at the U of M School of Art + Design and Imagine/Align was her thesis project.

Now that the blooming is over, will the line be maintained to bloom in the same way year after year?

The initial concept of Imagine/Align hinged on a metaphor that relates to the often arbitrary nature of imposed lines and borders. Only with this imaginary "drawing," the line travels through the open landscape using daffodils as its ephemeral marker. They will come up, bloom, and die away every year in their own natural rhythm and will change over time. As a community, we can re-visit the line each year to see this mutation as it breaks apart in some places and become thicker in others. We can also assign our own personal meanings as we witness the contemplative power of the mark of a single line.