Paula Hayes is an artist and designer who makes creative work with terrariums and other organic materials. She currently has work on view at the Wexner Center for the Arts until December 30, 2011 of recent sculpture as well as some new commissioned work. Her work combines modern contemporary design with plants and natural materials – the end result which is a futuristic terrariums with quirky plants and crystals that resemble slugs, eggs, and other organic forms.
Balancing the role of gardener and sculptor, Hayes works with industrial materials such as hand-blown glass, silicone, and cast acrylic and makes organic shapes that she fills with plants, minerals, and crystals. The pieces are sometimes mounted on pedestals or arranged as necklaces or constellations of “micro-terrariums.”
“It’s only very partially an object. It’s mostly a verb,” Hayes says about her work. Her work brings the outdoors inside and is a contemporary approach to terrariums and does not include fake plants, small bamboo plants, or natural twine (like planters and terrariums of the 1970’s.)
Hayes also created the Wexner Center Roof Garden near the Wexner Center’s entrance, which will feature hearty sedum plants, perennial plantings, grasses, and sculptural planters. The garden is a permanent addition and will change, grow, and be visually interesting in all 4 seasons.
A gardener, landscape designer and artist, she has been commissioned to design and execute gardens for multiple public and private spaces, including Hauser & Wirth Gallery in New York, W Hotel Landscape in Miami, and Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany.
Links:
Paula Hayes’s website and blog
Behind the Scenes: Paula Hayes, Nocturne of the Limax maximus
Wexner Center Exhibition Preview
Paula Hayes Wexner Rooftop Garden Installation