Invasive Tree and Weeds move West across Harlem Ave.

Burton Isenstein.  2017

Sintra (extruded PVC), steel sign post, assorted hardware. 

 

Joe Pye Weed is a plant native to North America that’s spread widely in my backyard and provided inspiration to create my own invasion of non-native plant life to send as an offering to the residents of River Forest.

 

These PVC plants were drawn in CAD and are essentially the end product of code generated from drawings of my ideas of what a specific plant might look like.  There are similarities between the way plants grow and propagate and how digital modeling allows me to propagate form.  Technology gives me the ability to replicate and scale to whatever size I choose, the limiting factors are the available tools and materials and budget.  These physical limitations have parallels to the way that gravity, water, sunlight, and nutrients influence the way plants grow according to their specific genetic code. 

 

 Burton Isenstein is an Oak Park based artist who makes sculpture that ponders the human relationship with the natural world, paying attention to and marveling at the variety of life forms and growth generated by biological and natural forces and how the interaction of humans intersects with this natural worl