Working with natural materials, Vance’s installations utilize tree litterfall from selected forestry points, translating the unique identity of each site to an indoor space. In this exhibition, Vance collects fallen branches and sticks from indigenous trees in Brooklyn’s own Prospect Park to create an installation. She reactivates these fallen limbs, detouring them from the natural course of decay of their environment, redefining them within a new context and space.

Prospect Park’s Midwood forest was selected as the origin site for this installation because of its importance as the oldest remaining native forest in Brooklyn. Harboring the last remaining eastern deciduous forest in Brooklyn, the park is unique example of an attainable balance between native nature and urban growth. With this installation, Vance amplifies components and themes specific to Midwood forest and juxtaposes them against the architecture of the gallery.

The gallery’s interaction with nature will also take place through a two nature walks (Saturday, October 6 and Sunday, October 7) with Vance and botanist Heidi Langeneckert in Prospect Park. Here the public can learn the nature and history of the trees and plants in Prospect Park, as well as participate in and learn about Vance’s process by helping to collect branches.