Palm Tree Cozy

As a part of my residency at the Irvine Great Park, I made a series of photographs, In Case You Get Lost.  Concurrently, I worked with the surrounding community to create a 19' knit sweater for one of the palm trees on site. 

The Great Park was designed as a repurposing of an old military base, El Toro. The park (now a Superfund site) and the Artists’ Court is lined with Palm trees, the quintessential California palm tree which is not native to California. 

These trees cost $15-17 thousand dollars. They provide no shade. Palm trees are essentially decorative, consume vast amounts of water, and do nothing to stop erosion. Calling attention to the absurdity of these trees by protecting and highlighting them seemed appropriate. By enveloping the tree with a soft, lovingly constructed sweater, complete with a pixelated image of the Giant Orange balloon that was a calling card for the park, one that illustrated my mixed feelings about land use.