Genius Loci: Villa | 2007, Bronze | 72″H x 72″W x 12″D | View Video
Weeds Series

Genius Loci: Villa has been created from hundreds of individual plant specimens collected from the Austin Museum of Art – Laguna Gloria area. The blooms are a variety of wild garlic that grow in the “picturesque” or rustic spaces embracing the natural terrain of the lower grounds, and the stems and leaves are of the bulbine plant located the “beautiful” or cultivated landscape of the upper grounds. Each live plant was cast into bronze. These bronze elements were then reconstructed into sculpture according to the design strategies that underlie the architectural plans of the Driscoll Villa, located on the grounds. In short, the landscape provided the individual units and the architecture suggested the compositional guidelines by which they have been articulated. The term “genius loci” is translated as “the spirit of place”.