Greenhouse Mix: Caroline Stiefel
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Greenhouse Mix was a site-specific textile installation inside the Wetherill Mansion inspired by Philadelphia’s rich history as a center of horticulture. The exhibition was comprised of three distinct components: two gallery installations and a project in the grand stairway of the PAA.
Her first installation green-house was inspired by the form and pattern of the stacked stones of botanist John Bartram’s Philadelphia greenhouse, which he built himself. Victorian-style ferneries and the idea of a “jungle in the salon” influenced the second installation Hothouse, which contained both textile and real ferns, along with a recorded sound piece. Lathan-Stiefel’s project in the stairway of the PAA, Frakturing, echoed the shapes and colors of both Pennsylvania Dutch Fraktur designs and the original 1905 stained glass window of the PAA, which features botanical imagery and plant forms. Overall, the installation provided a way for viewers to consider issues surrounding the importance of plant diversity and sustainability in an age of fracking.
