Hibernaculum Installation
The Hibernaculum installation was an immersive exhibition celebrating collaborative art and design inspired by nature. This project continued David Buckley Borden’s ongoing exploration of communicating environmental issues with accessible art and design. The exhibition, at Boston’s Innovation and Design Building (IDB) on the Boston waterfront, included five distinct rooms totaling over 3000 SF; each space explored nature’s relationship with art and design in their own distinct ways.
1. Hibernaculum Installation featured large-scale work, adapting site-specific installations from the Eagle Lake landscape to the gallery environment. This work took advantage of street level floor-to-ceiling windows along Drydock Ave. Installations included timber sculptures, large-format Forest Flag, razzle-dazzle canoe, pallet tank, barn vent and other eye-catching pieces by Borden and multidisciplinary collaborators.
2. Hibernaculum Print Gallery featured Borden’s collaborative silkscreen print series with Trifecta Editions, and mixed media work centered on ecology, natural history, and environmental-based design. These pieces were characterized by Borden’s creative sensibility, which has been described by Landscape Architecture Frontier Magazine as “refreshing and intentional; …humble, critical and aesthetic.”
3. Design Research Library was a furnished reading room and design library featuring publications critical to research behind Borden’s Hibernaculum projects. Topics included environmental design, landscape architecture, cartography, ecology, Native American architecture, Adirondack great camps, and graphic design and visual arts inspired by nature and North-East regional woodlands.
4. Fashion Cabin was a collaboration with Innovation and Design Building community to foreground the influence of the great outdoors on interior design. The inviting environment highlights IDB contributions and welcomes visitors to explore both the exhibition and IDB showrooms throughout the building.
5. Hibernaculum Shop was a working studio designed to provide visitors with an insider’s look into the creative process behind the year-long Hibernaculum project. The shop also features a small pop-up retail component where prints were sold.
Hibernaculum Target
Painted target to focus attention on an otherwise unremarkable woodland sight: a stack of firewood. Woodpile is brightly painted to highlight this seasonal hibernaculum opportunity for snakes, ladybirds, lacewings and solitary bees, all of which can use this structure to lay eggs or seek winter shelter.
Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Morgan Grenier, KEMS, Camille McGregor, Emily Moscufo, Helen Popinchalk
Approximately 16’ X 6’ X 2’
Woodland Wall
Hand painted signs on durable materials designed for outdoor installation in the woods. Signs call attention to both common woodland phenomena and pressing environmental concerns within Northeast woodlands.
Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, John Cronan, Myles O’Brien, Morgan Grenier, Helen Popinchalk
Signs of various material, acrylic paint. Pinus strobes (white pine) quarter rounds
Dimensions vary
Barn Vent
A tribute to the harmonious relationship between man and nature.
Collaborators: David Buckley Borden and Jared Laucks
Termite scarred Pinus strobus (white pine) and fabric
6'6” X 6’ X 4”
Invasive Species Pallet Tank
Did you know that the most devastating invasive insects attacking North American woodlands were imported by way of wooden shipping crates and pallets from abroad? The emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), the Asian long-horned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis), and the Asian gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar asiaticamoth) were all introduced via infested shipping materials from Asia and Eastern Russia.
Collaborators: Christian Borden, David Buckley Borden, Charles Faucher, Emily Moscufo, Helen Popinchalk
Shipping pallet wood, Acer rubrum (maple) half rounds, drawing ink, bark veneer, raccoon tail
5’ X 3’ X 2’
Snack Stand
Re-imagine the woodland foodweb. Re-zone abandoned Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) excavations as Snack Stand to highlight the ecological value of the snag within forest ecosystem.
Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, John Cronan, Morgan Grenier, Helen Popinchalk, Jared Laucks
Silkscreened wood facades on insect sculpted log segment
24” X 24” X 18”
Shade Box
A simple reminder of the value of canopy trees; made with a recycled ammunition box and paintbrush of your choice. Storage for informational pamphlet on canopy tree significance inside box. All collections donated to Arbor Day Foundation.
Hand painted wooden ammunition box and surplus army webbing belt on oak quarter round.
Collaborators: David Buckley Borden and John Cronan
12” X 8” X 4.5”