AIMÉE BEAUBIEN

After the Last Leaf

2443 N Francisco Ave. Chicago, IL 60647

variable dimensions

printed banner material, paracord

$3,500

Artist’s Note: For After the Last Leaf, I took stock of my immediate landscape and photographed specific leaves plucked from plants growing inside of my home and in the garden that surrounds. Wild, fast-growing vines slink through the yard and climb around our house. In my home studio, plants mingle with huge tangles of cut and woven photographs that dangle down from the ceiling in various states of progress and decay. I photograph the ever-changing conditions as plants dry and projects grow.

What happens when a plant closes its eyes, when it loses its leaves? What will the last leaf look like? For After the Last Leaf, I took stock of my immediate landscape and photographed specific leaves plucked from plants growing inside of my home and in the garden that surrounds. Qualities of the garden run parallel to the nature of photography: they are spaces defined by interactions of the scientific, the accidental and the temporal. Wild, fast growing vines slink through the yard and climb around our house. In my home studio, plants mingle with huge tangles of cut and woven photographs that dangle down from the ceiling in various states of progress and decay. I photograph the ever-changing conditions as plants dry and projects grow. Vines trail, ramble, lean, flop, twine, weave, root, grasp, cling and climb. I translate my responses to the vitality of vines by pushing color while imagining how energy is harnessed from the sun in photosynthesis. I reorganize the scale of my photographs to amplify the ambition of vine movements while translating their enviable ability to embrace everything near in acts of remarkable adaptability. Vines are tenacious. Vines will win.

ART-IN-PLACE is organized by CNL Productions and Terrain Exhibitions.