Closeup of tropical plants lit by pink LED lights.

Moths to a flame, caterpillars to a leaf, butterflies to a sunbeam

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Location: Conestoga Mall, at the Winners Court/Guest Services

550 King St N, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6L2

Map of Conestoga Mall with a star next to Guest Services

 

Moths to a flame, butterflies to a sunbeam, caterpillars to a leaf (2024) is an installation by hybrid artist Maria Simmons. The installation consists of the artist’s own vehicle, plants, grow lights, and video. Viewers are invited to enter into the vehicle’s backseat in order to watch the videos playing on headrest monitors and think about their relationships to nostalgia, memory, and plants.

Gallery

View of a video screen in a passenger seat headrest of a vehicle, seen over some plants in the foreground
View of a video screen in a driver seat headrest of a vehicle, displaying the words "is associated with creation"
A view looking into open doors on the passenger side of a black vehicle, with potted tropical plants tucked against the doors and visible feet in pink sandals of someone watching a video from inside the vehicle
A young woman looking closely at a screen in the back of a car seat headrest
A young person sitting in the backseat of a vehicle contemplating a video in the headrest in front of them.
A view from between the front seats of a vehicle, looking into an empty back seat with a trunk full of tropical plants lit by pink LED
3/4 front view of a black cube-like vehicle parked over top of a black fabric cut to look like an oil spill

Events

About the artist

Maria Simmons is a Guelph-based artist who investigates potentialized environments through the creation of sculpture and installation. Her work embraces contamination as an act of collaboration. She collects garbage, grows yeast, ferments plants, and nurtures fruit flies. She makes art that eats itself. She holds an MFA from the University of Waterloo and a BFA from McMaster University.