MILKWEED

ERIK DELUCA, MILKWEED, Summer 2020

Erik DeLuca, The Staff of Asclepius, milkweed, grow lights, speakers, wood tables, June - July 2020

Anteroom hosts a sample of the furnishings and milkweed grown by artist Erik DeLuca of the Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency during his three-month term this spring season, addressed on the needs of the Monarch Butterfly’s alarmingly decreased population. Milkweed is the sole host plant for Monarch Butterflies. DeLuca’s residency project, The Staff of Asclepias, is a social and environmental sculpture produced in four parts: 1) Samuels Building: a the second floor of this circa 1900 Jewish Merchant’s building two blocks south of 100W was a nursery to grow 2000 milkweed plants from seed. 2) The Hebrew Cemetery: a rectangle within the west lot was tilled to receive the planting of hundreds of milkweed for a monarch wayfinding station. 3) SweetPass Sculpture Park: located in West Dallas, hosts a 100-foot-plus LED light sculpture stretching across the lawn along the north-south axis that defines the Monarch Butterfly migratory path. This sculpture gradually illuminates daily at Sunrise and Sunset, alongside an acapella recording of the song Sunrise and Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof. 4) Anteroom: The same recording of Sunrise and Sunset plays toward the street outdoors. Inside, milkweed from Samuel’s Building continues to grow beneath a grow light.