Lisa Murch draws on her studies of entomology, biology and zoology to create her work, examining the complicated relationships and clever solutions of the natural world through the lens of sculpture and installation. This winter, she enlivens Wave Hill House with Flora and Fauna, an installation on the main staircase. Using ordinary craft materials such as wire and papier-mâché, she has fashioned a leafy green Wisteria vine that winds along the rail and wall of the stairs.

Selected to lend a festive air to Wave Hill House during the holidays, Murch’s vine imparts a lush, verdant ornamentation to its surroundings, thereby embracing the warm spirit of the winter season. The vine is inhabited with tiny, invented insects made to resemble leaves and flowers, and its numerous repetitive forms of intricately-composed creatures point to the patterning and embellishment found in nature. At the same time, the imagined ecosystem highlights the symbiotic relationships found in the natural world, and reminds visitors of the plant life on the grounds of Wave Hill, waiting to emerge again in the spring.

The inspiration for Murch’s installation, the Wisteria vine (Wisteria senesis), can be found at Wave Hill growing along the northeast walls of Glyndor House, where it blooms during the month of May. The plant is well over 100 years old, and survived a fire at the house in 1926.

Lisa Murch exhibited previously at Wave Hill in Survive/Thrive/Alive, and Celebrating Winter Through Nature in 2006. Since receiving her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 2003, Murch has exhibited her art in solo exhibitions in Philadelphia, PA, at Bioforms at Philadelphia Art Alliance, Natural Abundance at the Philadelphia Airport, Solo Series 2007 and Natural Artifice at the Schuylkill Center, and at the Abington Art Center in Jenkintown, PA. Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including: Infestation/Deterioration, StrataSphere, Philadelphia, PA; Philagraphifika Invitational Exhibition, William Penn Foundation, Philadelphia, PA; Kites; Art Takes Flight, Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA; On Color: The Green Show, Esther Klein Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; NANO Show, NEXUS/Foundation for today's art, Philadelphia, PA; and Works on Paper 2004, Arcadia University Art Gallery, Glenside, PA.

This project is made possible, in part, with support from the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Target, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts–a state agency.

     
The Arts at Wave Hill are sponsored by TARGET.