A ground breaking art/science experiment with Tillandsia plants that need no soil or watering system!
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Tillandsia Swarm is an experimental art/science project by ecological artist Lloyd Godman, where selected species of Tillandsias (air plants) have been installed without soil or axillary watering at a range of exposed urban locations and monitored to gauge their success through extreme seasonal conditions. To date over 100 plants are installed at 48 sites at 18 locations, including Eureka Tower, NGV (National Gallery of Victoria), TarraWarra Museum of Art, MGA ( Monash Gallery of Art), CH2 building, Essendon Fields, Montsalvat and The Friend’s School (Hobart). The plants on Eureka have been installed at level 92 for more than 4 years, which is the tallest building in the world with plants atop and is a testimony to the resilience of these amazing plants. They are installed across a wide rage of sites, some extremely demanding where they receive little rain and face the possibility of death. with the aim of monitoring how they preform in these extreme conditions.
Following the success of the Airborne project and Eureka Tower Cage experiment, Tillandsia SWARM is an on going art science project where diminutive Tillandsia plants are installed at other iconic and challenging locations on buildings within the city of Melbourne to prove that plants can be integrated into a wide range of buildings with minimal infrastructure and maintenance.
Because there is no need for a watering system or soil substrate nutrients, there is no risk to the structural integrity of the location. It also means the plants can be mounted on animated aspects of a building or urban infrastructure. The plants are simply placed inside a mesh cage and left to their own biological devices.
Over time the project expands, the plants "swarm" creating a growing map of urban locations with experimental Tillandsias.
The Green haze. - “At Eureka Tower, ecological artist Lloyd Godman has planted Tillandsia plants in an experiment that could inform greening throughout the city. It is his hope to eventually install “hundreds of thousands” of Tillandsia on the outside landings of the building, and all across the city coating the precinct in a green haze”. Weekend Australian, Business Review 9-10 January 2016
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