Beautiful Roots

Beautiful Roots is a social art project completed in 2014 and carried out in the Dennis Gallagher Arts Pavilion of San Francisco's French-American International School. The social sculpture was hand-loomed with the participation of more than 500 people. Students, faculty, staff, community members and friends contributed their energy and time to the fabrication of a flexible and organic surface evocative of a twisted root and calling for intuition and dialogue. During the course of the project, each day saw a single rope created from wool thread on a knitting loom. Each participant was asked to knit a portion of the piece, after which a portrait was taken, printed on felt and installed in a mosaic technique. A number of stories embodied the growing piece through studies of space and time in philosophy, geometry, drawings, and mindfulness meditation.  

The temporary installation reflects the identity of a community concentrated in a three-dimensional surface. Faces are framed at their center, capturing only the eyes, nose and mouth, promoting an abstract interpretation of identity that manifests as an energetic environment, appealing to the infinite.

 This artwork was conceived in conjunction with Awaiting Dawn, a yearlong interdisciplinary project with the French American International School community directed by Moise Touré and Les Inachevés, exploring the connections between Art, Education and Democracy in an era of fast-paced technological change by engaging in a multi-faceted conversation with the Ancient Greeks and culminating in a series of performances.