Between Hedges temporary landscape installation

As one of the laureates of the second Columbus arts exhibition season, the J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize, SO-IL chose the Miller House as the inspiration for its project, aiming to make the new landscape installation a temporary recreational landmark in Columbus, Indiana. The installation is located in the Arbor Vitae hedgerow of the Miller House, a landmark of modern landscape and architecture. The dense hedgerow around the house allowed Eero Saarinen to design a glass-walled dwelling that still has a solid wall between the street and the private courtyard. This year the Arbor Vitae hedgerow is about seventy years old and due for replacement, which created an opportunity to use this modern symbol to create something different and more participatory. Working with the management of the Miller House, SO-IL procured 130 fresh Arbor Vitae trees and placed them one by one in a giant hammock structure on the lawn of the Bartholomew County Courthouse in Columbus. After the exhibition, the trees will be permanently transplanted into the garden of the Miller House, establishing a direct link with the original inspiration of the installation and contributing to this National Historic Landmark. The giant hammock in the installation is hand-woven from nylon webbing, and the colours of the webbing are drawn from the palette Alexander Girard used for the dining table at the Miller House. The project is a temporary landscape that uses the material culture of the Miller House to bring a contemporary, participatory experience to the civic lawn, and ends by replanting the very hedgerow it celebrates.