Greenpoint Public Art Project Wants Your Soil Samples

GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN — This week, residents of Greenpoint have a chance to be a part of a public art project of collected soil from around the world that has personal meaning to individual community members. Greenpoint resident Martynka Wawrzyniak's project, called Ziemia, aims to collect cups of soil that have personal meaning to Greenpoint's community members internationally and incorporate them into a ceramic sphere that will be installed on a native meadow in McGorlick Park.

Wawrzyniak will be interviewing the people who submit samples from "personal meaningful locations that they have left behind or that embody their identity," she wrote on her website. The audio recordings of each interview will be exhibited alongside an interactive map made from the geographic coordinates of the soil sample, Wawrzyniak said.

The ceramic sphere will be topped with a glaze created by everyone's soil samples. It is meant to symbolize Greenpoint's change over the years.

"In using soil--universally symbolic for one's roots and identity--as the medium, Ziemia gestures to the primal connection to Earth that underlies each individual’s migratory experience," the website says.

Local residents can drop off their soil samples on Monday-Wednesday until 6 p.m., Thursday until 3 p.m. and Saturday until 5 p.m. at the Eckford Street Studio at 70 Eckford St. in Greenpoint. Find out more details about the symbolism and time frame of the art project here.

Photo via Ziemia