Lorna Jordan

lornajordan.com

Remediate/Re-vision: Public Artists Engaging the Environment
Glyndor Gallery | August 1 – November 28, 2010

Lorna Jordan’s Terraced Cascade uses stone and drought-resistant plants to create a distinctive environmental sculpture whose form expresses both a miniature watershed and an abstraction of the human torso. It provides a means for people to imagine their place within the larger Indian Bend Wash—a watershed with alternating conditions of drought and flooding. Taking advantage of the wash topography, a series of riblike terraces and a vertebraelike cascade are nestled into the hillside. The terraces contain desert plants, such as scarlet sage, octopus agave, purple prickly pear, desert marigold, and palo blanco, selected for their color, shape, and sustainability. During the rainy seasons, harvested storm water flows down the cascade to irrigate a mesquite bosk that offers shade and respite from the desert sun.