PolliNation (Phase 1) (2022-23)

Click HERE for PolliNation (Phase 2)

Seed bombs – clays, worm casting compost, seeds for flowering plants and grasses that flourish in Kentucky and that attract, feed and thrive in collaboration with pollinators, both wild and domestic. 

Crucial Terrain by Zoe Strecker Transylvania University Lexington, Kentucky March 8, 2023
PolliNation – installation view
PolliNation Seed bombs – clay, worm castings, color selected seed
PolliNation – installation view of macrophotographs of 13 seed varieties in bombs

Seed portraits, left to right: Hairy Lespedeza, Ohio Spiderwort, Prairie Blazingstar, Lance Leaved Coreopsis, Smooth Aster

PolliNation (Phase 2 – growth) (2023, ongoing)

Fall 2023 the flag will be grown at 33’ x 96’ in a cleared pasture. Over time, the plants will bloom, spread, overlap, soften the hard lines of the flag and, eventually, dissolve it.

Documentation in progress

PolliNation – Plant bed solarization preparation – reused greenhouse plastic tucked in trenches, 33′ x 96′, May 2023
Seed block starts – Plains Coreopsis (foreground) and Blackeye Susan

PolliNation Seed Portraits (2023)

Black-eyed Susan seed portrait
PolliNation Seed Portraits, installation view, March 2023

(Seed Portrait images, from left to right)

  • Hairy Lespedeza (Lespedeza hirta)
  • Blanket flower (Gaillardia aristate)
  • Blue False Indigo (Baptisia australis)
  • Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
  • Plains Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctorial)
  • Lance Leaved Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolate)
  • Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)
  • Smooth Aster (Aster laevis)
  • Blackeyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
  • Prairie Blazing Star (Liatris pycnostachya)
  • Slender Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium)
  • Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)   
  • Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella)

Plants by color

Reds / oranges / yellows

  • Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella)                                 
  • Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)                          
  • Plains Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctorial)   
  • Blanket flower (Gaillardia aristate)
  • Lance Leaved Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolate)                             
  • Blackeyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)

Whites

  • Prairie Blazing Star (Liatris pycnostachya)                                                       
  • Slender Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium)                                        
  • Hairy Lespedeza (Lespedeza hirta)                                                                   

Blues / purples

  • Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)                                          
  • Blue False Indigo (Baptisia australis)                               
  • Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)                                          
  • Smooth Aster (Aster laevis)