Wild Madder

2020, artist made washroom for Art Preserve, Kohler, WI, photo credit: John Michael Kohler Arts Center

The John Michael Kohler Art Center’s Art Preserve exists thanks to the conviction that remarkable artist environments need to be preserved and shared. Artist built environments function as cultural landscapes that are intimately connected to sense of place. Wild Madder provides a conceptual bridge between cultural and ecological preservation and accentuates the connection to locality, illustrating Southeast Wisconsin’s natural surroundings during a time of radical transition caused by climate change and mass extinction.

Depicting over 1,279 flora species found in Sheboygan County, the verdant composition is a collage of imagery sourced from our collective digital efforts. Its enclosed vignettes feature slip cast ceramic copies of extirpated flora specimens from the University of Wisconsin Madison Herbarium; its fixtures use Kohler Co.’s Waste Lab glaze, a repurposed factory byproduct, to imprint human use.

Fixture with Waste Lab glaze

One of two lavatories featured in Wild Madder. Kohler Co.’s Waste Lab glaze, a repurposed factory byproduct, was applied and the artist washed her hands, disrupting the wet glaze. Afterwards, the sink was refired, effectively recording the act of use.