This Dadelion Clock can help prepare you for the seasonal shifts around us.
These first fall days have been breathtaking–Long Island winemakers in the midst of harvest are particularly psyched. But the season-shift does bring certain wistfulness–fewer tomatoes hang on the vine, summer squash makes way for pumpkins, and things go to seed. Which is why you must see “The Dandelion Clock,” on view at Silas Marder Gallery through this Sunday, September 30.
The large-scale, interactive video installation by John Carpenter features an exploding dandelion head, whose movement and action is controlled by the viewer. (See a video here.) And, like any good art, it gets your mind working. When I saw it, I thought of the cool nights of fall, the browning of tree leaves, the scent of back-to-school. I considered all the things I had hoped to do this summer–more dips in the sea, a bigger planting of edamame, more canned tomatoes–which I may not do. Then I thought of the resilience of plants–how they return year after year, getting a never-ended second chance. So I popped into Marder’s nursery and bought a couple of packs of fall lettuce seeds. I remembered that winter has its own rewards, and there is always next year.
