Terrariums
A combination of idealism and escapism is what elevated Hayes’s terrariums beyond those of the past, into the world of both fine art and contemporary design. After making her first terrarium out of geometric wood and glass, Hayes decided to experiment with other shapes. “I wanted to manifest what I experienced emotionally when I feel overcome with a positive charge,” she told Artsy. She settled on blown-glass containers because of the way they mimic the curve of the sky. “The container itself has this relationship to the dome of heaven—you can imagine yourself inside,” she said.
This show also included one of Hayes’s first terrariums. The artist studied the history of terrariums extensively before making her own, which she modeled after the Wardian Case, a Victorian-era invention that allowed explorers to transport plant life from one continent to another by ship. Once the interior of the case was in equilibrium, it could be sealed, maintaining a constant atmosphere for the plants inside. “They’re really this more perfect world,” Hayes said of the original terrariums.
That Hayes would elevate the terrarium to fine art makes sense in light of her upbringing and education. The artist grew up in rural Massachusetts, where she spent the majority of her childhood playing by herself outdoors. When she moved to New York City in the 1980s to attend the Parsons School of Design, she began working as a gardener on the side. “I had to be around plants when I moved to New York City,” she told Artsy. “I’m very sensitive to the environment. It’s a natural connection that I have.”
Over time, the obsession with terrariums faded, but it returned in the 1960s and ’70s when the environmental movement—and hippies—burst onto the scene in America and the U.K. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, published in 1962,revealed the toll of pollution on the environment and laid the groundwork for a movement that coalesced into the establishment of the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Terrariums were the physical embodiment of that movement: little shrines encapsulating the fragility of nature. These terrariums were mostly homemade, using a fishbowl or another sort of container that would have otherwise been discarded (a perfect example of what has come to be known as upcycling). Of course, terrariums were commodified, too. A company called Tiara Casa mass-produced a DIY terrarium kit—consisting of a large plastic globe atop a tall white stand—that became a fixture in many 1970's living rooms.
Reflection
The first thing that hits you about these mini environments is just a familiar they seem to places you have been before. The artist is attempting in these works, to bring a little piece of nature indoors so that she may feel more connected to the outside world and to that extent her hometown. However, these elements of nature have been encapsulated into glass forms, creating the impression that that home is a Utopian imaginary dream state, when there viewer can only long to be. I like the original intent of the work, as well as the end result, however I don't think that the message has been delivered 100% as effectively as it might have been, due to the use of the enclosure. The plants remain separated, as if under intense observation. That separates an ideal from reality.
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