MAGGIE
MCCREERY



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Seams and Sphagnum

Birch plywood, iron oxide earth pigment, ink, cotton yarn, sphagnum moss, red Asiatic Lily petals, Micans Philodendron leaves, washi paper

Winter 2024

I had the joy of joining architects, design students, and fine artists on a month long trip to Japan. There we thought towards a post-urban future, meeting with city planners, architects, designers, community organizers and scholars, learning of their experiences and interpretations of a depopulating Japan and adapting climate.
This work is part of my visual exploration process  exhibited in March of 2024 at the Rhode Island School of Design architecture gallery.



                 





...Through the example of Tokyo, we see enforced boundaries, tangible and psychological, between humans and “wilderness.” Cities and urban materiality have been our safety blankets, proving we can be permanent and separate from the fluctuations and decay that the rest of the natural world faces.  


This dynamic faces pressure... when our permanence is threatened... Our constructed world becomes neglected for efficiency despite all buildings having their own natural and impermanent life cycle....
In this future, mending will be equivalent to innovation, and structures will be allowed to age and grow with us... cities will become fertile grounds for forest. By shifting our perspective of permanence, we de-center the human and re-forge connections with more-than-human species as our built spaces become spaces of cohabitation.


... A four-painting series on wood panels depicting a sequence of neglect, decay, and eventual reclamation and revitalization of built environments by both human and non-human communities...


These paintings show the possibilities of a depopulated future that repurposes unsuitable/neglected structures to bring communities together, making the buildings more accessible and cared for as actors with their own lifespans...



... I have also stitched into the wood small moss environments, with plant debris as substrate, inviting literal growth and decay into the paintings and demanding a relationship of care to the work...