Soil + Sun

Soil + Sun
Nance Klehm 

November 2017 – February 11, 2017
The Bowtie Project

Soil + Sun is a Bowtie Project residency by ecologist and professional forager Nance Klehm. Following her research, during which she “read” the Bowtie’s distinctive landscape, Klehm’s project focuses on the relationship between two ecological niches: the post-industrial area alongside the Los Angeles River, and the islands within it. Klehm is interested in the lack of communication between these sites; although geographically adjacent, they share few characteristics.

The residency culminates in a tour, Surface Walk, on February 11, 2017, and the creation of an herbarium that archives the Bowtie’s ecology. The herbarium contains plant samples from each of these ecological niches, which Klehm collected, pressed, mounted on archival sheets, and cataloged, with assistance from Yara Herrarte. In the tradition of the world’s great herbariums, Klehm’s botanic archive of the Bowtie will be accessible to the public. You can hear audio documentation of Surface Walk below.