Partners
Wassaic Project, participating artists

Project
Participatory installation

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Design activation, creative direction

BOWER was a participatory installation by seven Brooklyn artists and designers at The Wassaic Project Summer Exhibition, Homeward Found, June 15th-September 1st, 2013 in Wassaic, NY.

The installation was inspired by the Bowerbirds native to Australia and New Guinea and renowned for their unique courtship behavior. Bowerbirds build intricate nest structures which they adorn with like-colored natural and manmade objects, in order to lure a mate.

The installation included objects created by Shoham Arad, Ivan Martinez, Jill Peterson, Matt Cassity, Emma Alpert and Sarah Sandman and were housed within a yurt structural frame by Kelley Sullivan. The artists were instructed to create a series of objects within three color schemes and in three sizes, setting the stage where Bowerbirds could play.

Thank you to the The Wassaic Project and the supporters of our Kickstarter campaign. 

< Video

Visitors to the exhibition were invited to act like Bowerbirds: enter the structure and engage with the objects - to touch, play and rearrange the pieces they found for the next visitor. Some visitors took the opportunity to arrange by size or color, while others went wild - redecorating the BOWER yurt in ways we never imagined. Watch the video here to see what we're talking about!