Past and present resonate in Cristina de Gennaro’s evocative installation that weighs the fragility of memory with the hardiness of plant life. Researching Wave Hill’s history led her to the Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinesis) that surrounds Glyndor House, a plant that is well over 100 years old and survived fire in 1926. She identifies with the vine’s persistence through the successive generations who occupied the three homes built on the Glyndor site and stewarded this plant and the land in the same way that Wave Hill is cared for today. The columnar vines are painted in two corners – framing the installation, they appear to support the room. Along the walls is text that evokes a number of whispering “voices,” echoing occurrences through time. Historic photographs printed on Japanese Gampi paper are attached to the windows, framing the views to the sun porch surrounded by wisteria, and beyond to the river and the red oak, one of Wave Hill’s oldest trees. Though many people have occupied this house, the wisteria thrives and would overtake the building if not for the gardeners’ vigilant pruning.

Cristina de Gennaro has exhibited throughout the United States including the ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL; Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA; AIR Gallery, New York, NY; and the San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX. She exhibited at the Oregon College of Art and Crafts, Portland, OR at the conclusion of an Artist Residency Fellowship. She also participated in the Jentel Artist Residency Program, Banner, WY; and was a visiting artist at the American Academy of Rome in Italy. She has received Faculty Fund Awards and NEH Faculty Development Grants from the College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY where she is an Associate Professor of Art.