Plano Verde before, (July, 2011) and after (Detail, June 2016)
   Invasive Giant Thatching grass colonization after area was clearcut in mid-90's. A long process of pulling these grasses and weeding their shoots and
   seedlings for five years, resulted in diversity returning.


Plano Verde is an 11 year project: a terra-transformation, a re-wilding of a previously clearcut area.
The artist sought to rehabilitate this area, formally hard-packed pasture, in which opportunistic invasive
species had colonized, such as Giant Thatching Grass or Jaragua (Hyparrhenia rufa) (pictured in Before video).
This monumental project involving copious research, years of hard labour, primarily conducted by the artist,
focused on removing stones, discarded plastic, metal, listre, hand pulling invasive species, and gradually
loosening the ground (with the help of selected indigenous) plants, adding soil constructed from compost,
leaves and fallen branches. Volunteer plants* local to the area were nutured, both on an aesthetic level and
in consideration of encouraging local flora and fauna to rehabituate to the area.
The amending and aesthetic transformation of the area continues.

An important part of the aestheticization includes the presence of ever-increasing diversity of life: both flora and fauna.
Above is one example, of the before and after of the same gps location: the 'Before' clip, (this particular footage,
marking only the second time the artist set foot on the land; and the second, an 'after' clip, documentation made 5 years
later, resplendant with butterlies, growning vines and saplings. These are Julia butterflies (Dryas iulia), a species of
brush-footed butterfly, feeding on a young flowering Cissus erosa vine.
Fiona considers this work the second collaboration with creatures (who were key in the placement and germination of the
Cissus erosaand the young trees that support it. This project spurned and honed her interest in continuing to nuture
diverse plantings, insect, bird and other wildlife populations.

Since 2021 it has become an ongoing landscape of its own accord, where the rehabituated flora and fauna now direct its future.
While Fiona reluctantly moved on in 2021 after a 5-year battle with a lung condition, the new stewards continue her "legacy"
(their words).

It is related to the satelite image of (1+)Response(2023)

*volunteer plants* These are plants that have simply germinated in a particular spot. The term 'volunteers' is gardening slang,
(a conceit) that suggests a plant naturally emerged from the soil without human intervention or planning(!), that thrives in its
particular position and environmental conditions. All wild growth be considered volunteer, though this anthropocentrist designation
simplifies the very complex influence of bird, insect and wildlife in the distribution and germination success of seeds and clones.

all rights reserved/copyright fiona bowie 2013-2023
All images, sound and text are the exclusive copyright of the artist and may not be used or duplicated without the expressed permission of the artist