mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow is a large-scale light sculpture that sits at the intersection between the environmental crisis and state power. A collaboration with Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares, the piece is a part of a series of works in which the artists explore the sculptural and symbolic potential of standard steel barricades. Designed to seamlessly blend into the landscape, the use of illumination highlights the ubiquitous nature of these barricades on our city streets, especially as an architecture of control in protests.
In this latest iteration, for the Making Miami exhibition, the artists recreate how activists subvert the use of police barricades into repurposed ladders. A procession of 13 LED-lit barricades commences its trajectory in the customary interlocking linear arrangement along the Design District’s property line. Gradually, they ascend, piercing through the branches of an oak tree before descending on the other side in the form of a ladder. This minimalist gesture brings the conversation around protest movements to protect the environment directly into the natural and urban landscape.
Photo Credit: Rudy Duboué
