The past week was pure fun, once I committed to the idea of making it real, I just had to find the right materials. I really wanted to test it, see how it behaves, see how people react to it.
I found 2 HEX BUGS that you can buy in any kids toy store. Both of them working on a couple of batteries and doing exactly what it wanted my walking garden to be: some sort of a bug. One garden is more relaxed while the other is going crazy all over.
>>>>
Some crafty things had to be done, so I made a few simple boxes/beds to see which will feet better to my bugs. Once that was done I started to collect all of my favorite plants from the gardens that I have around my house. It wasn’t so simple, a lot of people looked at me with very suspicious eyes, so in the end I went with my boyfriends and our dog and also documented the process.
We looked for the smallest branches out there, the smallest flowers, the tiniest leaves. etc… After having a lot of nice little pieces of my urban nature, I started to create them, glued them so they will feel reach and natural. I even had to store them in the refrigerator in order to keep them fresh.
After this journey, it was all about putting them out there and see how people will react. At first I did some sessions with my Itp classmates, the Wonderfull Dylan and chivoni. The photo session with them made me realize how much emotions these can bring out from someone, they treated them so gently and I loved the interaction they had with them once they put it on their bodies.
Later, I went out there, to the wild streets of new York, I just wanted to take some pictures and maybe a couple of videos, so I went to a nice little quit place next to tisch school, the 2 bugs were running and in less than 2 seconds I had 6 curious kids, looking, touching, asking questions and playing with these walking gardens, they didn’t want me to leave and honestly, I didn’t want to leave, but I had to. Lucky I was able to record their beautiful reactions to this short video.