Foli.age + Design Projects
Work by Gina Bouza
Foli.age + Design Projects
I am a designer that combines the chemistry of creation with the fleetingness of time through objects and materials. With a background in architecture, my projects come from an interest in how matter is extracted and moved through a process towards a material. My art is a form of reparation of the disconnection between people and the processes of material production. Through leaves, my creations are implemented in the time of fall when leaves drop and begin their process of decay.
I begin by learning about the place I am situated in by extracting the fallen leaves and begin to materialize their fibers. My projects have ranged from swatches to larger pieces inspired by how our bodies interact with furniture. After constructing these pieces, I place them back in the places I extracted the leaves from and where people can interact with the material while it is decaying back into the land. My art mends the relationship between people and ecology.
This portfolio includes my earlier works I produced while studying architecture at Syracuse University. These projects include my work in Set Design, projects of re-use, and studies of structure.
Table of Contents
Email: bouzag741@gmail.com
Instagram: Foli.aged
Foli.age
1. Weeded Ground
2. Foli.age Shelf
3. Where do Leaves Go? [Uncanny Branch]
4. Moving Pieces
Design/Installation
5. Set Design
6. Nomadic Living
7. Lines of Sight
Foli.age [Research]
My art stems from my architectural education where I began to research the meaning of place and time within a built environment. Do drawings tell the whole story? My first pieces are materials that do not try to be permanent. Using decaying leaves in Syracuse I experimented on what can be created out of their already rotting fibers. Through the beginning stages of this project I was able to study the smells and textures produced throughout the process of creating the material, as well as how it was able to transform within its own environment. This is a series developed from my interests of growth, death, decay, and growth again, where I wondered why this is a concept that is only accepted within the term “nature”. I believe the objects and materials we live with should be allowed to follow an entropic decay.
This is a process of how I transformed the leaves within their state of decay to temporarily give them a new life.
Paper created using long grass found within Westminster Park in Syracuse. Made with fresh grass picked in the beginning of November. Begins to ripple in the drying period.
Strengths:
Weakness’:
Extremely Thin. Weakest material. Requires excavating leaves. Difficult to keep smooth. Susceptible to tearing.
Paper created using Wet fallen leaves found in Thorndon Park and our backyard in Syracuse. Made with wet fallen leaves continuously scavenge. Are used during the Winter period.
Paper created using an assortment of leaves and flowers in Syracuse. Made with from flowers and plants we collected in September and allowed to dry for a Month. The first iteration in our series.
Long Grass Foli.age
Wet Leaves Foli.age
Vibrant green color. Can become transparent. Quickest drying period. Obtains textures easily. Least amount of stems. Smooth edges.
Lightest color. Had the best fragrance. Larger warping. Strong but malleable. Multiple specs of colors. Soft edges. Light Smell.
Dark color. Strongest of the materials. Easiest to collect. Can create a large amount at once. Easiest to blend. Most fibrous.
Small warping. Strong earth smell while boiling. Difficult to separate other ecology while collecting. Color determined by drying exposure.
Longest drying period. Requires excavating flowers. Difficult to collect a lot at once. Time spent crushing the plants before boiling. Inconsistent texture.
Dry Leaves and Flowers Foli.age
Project done in collaboration with Meejan Patel.
Weeded Soil
Weeded Grounds is a continuation of my practice Foli.age where I learn about a place’s history through the fallen leaves and the stories they tell. I studied foreign life forms that construct Central Park from soil to trees and how they were landscaped to displace and cover the lives of Seneca Village. The project builds off the archeological discovery of artifacts and pollen from Seneca Village, excavated to establish an indigeneity of the people and the land. Pollen extraction leads to an understanding of the native ecology and cultivation practices that have been replaced with foreign soils and trees. The weeds discovered were a sign of gardening and medicinal use. These weeds continue to grow within Central Park becoming a symbol of the indigeneity buried in the landscaped soil. Like the leaves the weeds are treated as invasive, being ripped out of the ground and moved to piles. This project creates an ephemeral memorial reconnecting the weeds to their rooted value and the ground.
Weeded Soil
I created a map of the movement of these life forms that lead to the landscaping of Central Park. In this map I included Seneca Village, Guano, the Persian Ironwood, Water pipes, native and non-native vines. Amongst the native plants that were replaced with foreign plants many are considered invasive today.
Seneca Village Persian Ironwood
Water Pipes
Discorea Polystachya
Discorea Villosa
Guano
Weeded Soil
Guano
The new landscaping of the park was used with a fertilizer called Guano originally growing on the Chincha Islands of Peru before being completely exhausted in 1875. The guano was extracted through Chinese and indigenous slaves and prisoners. Where it is brought to Central Park to nourish the growth of foreign trees.
Persian Ironwood
Within Central Park 60% of the trees are non-native. I particularly looked at the Persian Ironwood as a foreign tree originally growing in the Hyrcanian Forests. As it is brought to Central Park the tree’s biological form transforms from originally growing tall to becoming similar to a shrub.
Weeded Soil
As I walked where Seneca Village once was I documented every tree and shrub I passed by. What is labeled in red are foreign. From 79th to 86th 56% of the trees and shrubs are non-native. Through my site visits I became aware that even as foreign trees they have gone through time reclaiming a new soil. As their leaves fall they become a part of the ground connecting to the roots of the tree and creating a new soil. They are no longer foreign.
They were able to trace various weeds that were used medicinally and as food by Seneca Village. These weeds continue to grow within Central Park becoming a symbol of the indigeneity buried in the landscaped soil. These weeds today have no value. They are de-rooted and placed within a pile along with fallen leaves before they are moved out to make a compost.
Weeded Soil
In 2011 a group of archeologists and students performed excavations reaching below the new soil with the goal of retrieving a material culture to Seneca Village. They were able to identify sites of excavation by determining soils that have been pre-cultivated to where people of Seneca Village used a local soil for the low lying areas.
These artifacts that were found become the identity of the community that was displaced. Through objects like the smoking pipe the archeologists were able to get an understanding that the people of Seneca Village were part of the middle class unlike how they were once described. Within the soil samples, they found pollen that traced back to types of trees that regionally grew within the wetlands and plants that alluded to gardening. Seneca Village established a life with the native ecology.
Weeded Soil
With the de-rooted weeds I will collect them creating an ephemeral memorial that connects their indigeneity to Seneca Village. I chose to reconstruct the weeds into a pair of shoes. The shoes signify the beginnings of Seneca Village with Andrew Williams being a shoe shiner as well as it being an object that connects people to the ground.
Weeded Soil
With one of the shoes I went back to Central Park and placed it within a pile of new soil that will soon become implemented in the park. Over time the shoe will decompose with the weeds and the story of Seneca Village being part of the soil again. The other shoe I have kept as a way to remember the story of the weeds that are connected to The people of Seneca Village.
Weeded Soil
The shoe that has not decomposed is presented within a pile of leaves that have also yet to decompose.
Weeded Soil
Proposal 1
The first proposal is to use the fallen leaves and branches that I have collected to create a series of shelves that will be placed on the land where the artifacts of Seneca Village were excavated. On the shelves I will place the objects of Seneca Village that I have recreated using the weeds. The shelves establish a level of importance towards these objects and ass time goes on the piece will begin to break down and become part of the ground again.
Proposal 2
The second proposal ties back to how the weeds were used as food and medicinally amongst the people of Seneca Village. I will design garden beds that will hold the recreated artifacts made of the weeds. It will also be a space to plant and grow the weeds identifying their orgins and traditional uses. While the weeds are growing the the objects will begin to decay in the soil of the garden beds.
+Grant Proposals
Foli.age Shelf
This project is based off of the functions of a bookshelf where I intended to create a piece that can hold my studies. Made out of leaves I collected from Central Park and sticks I found at Columbia University, I created this shelf as an embodiment of this chapter in my life. The central part of the shelf wraps between the two sticks leaving gaps for me to fill in the future.
Each shelf is made to hold the studies that I have created throughout the year. The shelf itself is built using techniques that I have gained. Parts of the gaps are filled with a thin sheet of the leaf material so when light shines through it exposes the grains and fibers.
Hole created to pass cords through the shelf
Foli.age Shelf
The piece was exhibited at House of Earth show currated by Elijah Newman in Chicago. The Foli.age Shelf was displayed with an arrangement of utensils made out of leaves that come from the project Metabolism of Leaves. The forks, spoons, knives, and cups are placed in a disarray to allude to the future of the pieces’ inevitable collapse. They are placed on the ground because like the leaves they aren’t meant to be cherished.
Where Do Leaves Go? [Uncanny
Branch]
Where do leaves go? is the current project I am working on since I have moved to New York City. I became interested in the values, or lack of, that New York City puts on Decaying leaves. Through sanitation laws fallen leaves are considered trash and move through a process towards compost, ultimately creating a bio-fuel, releasing the carbon from these leaves into the air. This process in the end systematizes decaying leaves separating it from its intended cycle.
I chose to look at Elizabeth Street Garden as a site for this issue because similar to leaves the site is experiencing a form of decay. Like the majority of gardens in Manhattan ESG is a man made garden and has become a community space. They are currently facing demolition, with the city planning on turning the space into low income housing for the elderly. Similar to how the city collects leaves and wood transporting it out of its context they have decided to get rid of the site of the garden and the plants that inhabit it.
Where will these leaves go?
Will the memories of the garden disappear?
October 12, 2023
October 24, 2023
Where Do Leaves Go? [Uncanny
Branch]
Long Drawing Illustrating the multiple processes of decay from natural, commercial, to my own material interventions. [1]
My intervention with time and how I reconstruct the matter from the fallen leaves into a material.
Where Do Leaves Go? [Uncanny
Branch]
Long Drawing Illustrating the multiple processes of decay from natural, commercial, to my own material interventions.
[2]
Comparing how NYC Sanitation treats fallens leaves versus the leaves biological process of decay.
Where Do Leaves Go? [Uncanny
Branch]
Compiling Research of Leaves Collected in Elizabeth Street Garden Displayed on a Table for Interaction
Where Do Leaves Go? [Uncanny Branch]
Body Base Bowl
The final piece was constructed in three seperate parts starting with the body combining fallen branches and the leaf material. The second section created is the base for the body to connect to, and finally the bowl that sits on top of the body. The body is constructed with fallen green leaves I collected in late Feburary.
The green leaves become significant as they are a symbol of time changing and the strange occurance of green leaves within late fall. The bowl is the most fragil peice creating holes and debris along the edges. As drawings I again used the prints of each section to illustrate the different times throughout the process of the overall piece.
Where Do Leaves Go? [Uncanny
Branch]
Leaves Collected at the End of Fall. 3.5’x15”
Drawings using the prints from the Leaves
Red
Where Do Leaves Go? [Uncanny
Branch]
Yellow leaves collected in the begining of Fall. 3.5’x15”
Drawings using the prints from the Leaves
Where Do Leaves Go? [Uncanny Branch]
The combined elementes resulted in an Uncanny Branch that was placed back in Elizabeth Street Garden where its’ matter was first extracted. In the garden I asked people to interact with the Uncanny Branch by puling off a dyed piece of paper from the branchs, writing words on the paper that illustrate their memories of the garden, and placing their memorie within the bowl. Similar to how the Uncanny Branch becomes a material of the leaves of the garden, the interaction materializes the individual memories.
Where Do Leaves Go? [Uncanny
Branch]
Where Do Leaves Go? [Uncanny
Branch]
The material within its’ original context creates an uncanny relationship with its surroundings, not quite fitting in with the matter that it is originally
At the center will be the Uncanny Branch 3’10” x 1’2” in its current state of decay. It will be sitting in a bed of leaves and paper dyed from leaf paint. Underneath will be a large sheet of paper around 6’x6’. On the perimeter of the paper will cases of the leaf paint that people will use to stain the paper surrounding the piece.
Table with the 29” x 41”
Reseach Wall
Moving Pieces
Through our study of Unstable Chair we used Moving Pieces as a project that evolves based off the properties of the material. Instead of developing a form that manipulates the material for human use, this project looks at how our movements and bodies can evolving to the material. With our previous studies we learned how as the pieces loose and gain moisture they begin to warp. We created a floor for the piece and legs that grow out of it. The floor piece created gaps between itself and the ground. We imagined these places to be little caves for other organisms to grow and live. These long vertical pieces curved as they dried leading us to construct several lateral pieces that would support the vertical pieces once they began to warp.
We had no intended formal goal for this piece and believe that architecture is the process we went through together with the material foli.age.
[This Piece Decayed]
Moving Pieces
Moving Pieces
Moving Pieces has a body similar to that of a plant or a human. When it is dry it hardens dropping debris similar to what a tree would do in the fall. When wet, it begins to curve and expand.
It is made from the embodied carbon of fallen leaves. We have transformed the quality of the energy from the leaves we collected and created a piece that will further change and decay based on external sources.
Moving Pieces
This is a series of photographs where we experimented with how my body will interact with the piece in its dry state. My body and the piece will reach a state of decay at different times but I will consciously re-orient myself to this change.This project is response to the rigidity of material culture within the architecture practice. It is hard to accept that our buildings die because we don’t allow them to.
Images Documenting Object Interaction Printed
24”x24”
Set Design 01
Abiotic Wanderers
In Collaborationg with Alaina Marra, Addison Jordan, Pris Leung, Issac Haseltine, and Chika Ma. This project is a set designed for a fashion runway following the theme of abiotic wanderers. The theme is a commentary on the anthropocene and the excesses amounts of waste that has accumulated, especially in the fashion world. The set design looks at how a landscape might transform as the enviornment worsens. Using recycled scraps, broken chairs, chicken wire, and wool we created a toxic landscape. The flowers are mimicked with the chiken wire, that is being molded to form the typography of the landscape. The Use of vibrant colors creates a toxic look to the hill, being anything but natural.
Set Design 02
The End of The Party
As the head of Set Design for the Spring Semester of 2023 I was in charge of designing the center piece for the show as well as leading the construction. The theme of the show is the end of the party. For the design I was inspired by elements within architecture that become destroyed and that moment of movement of objects coming to their end. To match the flashyness of the outfits that were being presented I decided to construct a chandelier out of foam and install it to present it in a moment of destruction. The body of the piece was painted black to blend with the stage to allow for the array of gems and lights to shine.
Nomadic Living
Music and Moving
This project explores the idea developed with the counterculter in the 1960’s of Nomadic Living. My partner Ellie (a fellow student) and I were inspirded by the George Harrison song The Inner Light, as we understood its relevence to traveling and spirituality. Being able to move in order to open ones mind pushed the project to become a home on wheels that begins to transform for different uses. We were also inspired by the California misions when creating a poster to promote our home. The misions bring together the act of moving and gaining religious knowledge. In Harrisons song it begins with the mention of moving through a door to begin the journey. The project is meant to be created with the use of door scraps found, as they can both be used as surfaces and openings. The door also ties together the experience of a new journey to be experienced.
Project done with Ellie Derwinkes
Nomadic Living Sleep Sing
The doors fold together, creating a vaulting enclosure. In its most basic configuration everything is kept compact to allow for the traveler to sleep peacefully.
With wheels and a bike can now be used to travel. center is a door table below for the travelers their belongings. The open to sing to the people pass by.
Meditate
bike etatched it travel. At the table with space travelers to keep door windows people they
When it is time to meditate the home opens up to the outside. The door tables brought out to create seating for contemplation. It has become a stage and platform for many uses.
Lines of Sight
This project is derived from the research we did on the basketball move the Monster Block where we became interested in the flow of the move as well as the component of eyesight. More specifically, looking at what the player sees versus the spectator. Later leading us to design a Basketball Training Facility in Upstate New York. In order to incorporate the town we throught of using a skin for the the building to open up visually, drawing spectators in. The design is structurally complex as we began to design the skin to not only enclose spaces, but to structurally support the overall design. The design is linear connecting the city to the views of the water; creating views from within towards the players to the landscape on the outside.
Project done with Tianyu Lyu
The Spectator
The Player
The form of the building is inspired by the Monster Dunk move made by Lebron
We looked at two components of the move; Lebrons movements and the eyesight of the spectators. Connecting where their eyes would move simultaniously with the moves transition through space.
James.
Lines of Sight
The structure for the building is seperated in to two components with the skin as the encloser and a beam and collum system for the interior. The curved roofing works with the skin, made up of wooden horizontal beams and steel columns. Using the curved columns on the skin, trusses connect to both ends of the steel columns, forming the roofs for the courts, entrance and dorms. The skin is further enclosed by glass panels held by a spider glass holder.
2nd Floor
1st Floor
Court
1. Court
2. Maple Flooring
3. Airtech Pads
4. Sleepers
5. Polethylene Film
1. Finishing Lath Mortar
2. Foamed Concrete
3. Concrete
4. Ribbed Metal
5. Wooden Floor Beam
1. Wood Floor
2. Finishing Lath Mortar
3. Sleepers
4. HVAC Pipes
5. Foamed Concrete
6. Sound-absorbing Material
7. Concrete 8. Rigid Insulation
Security
Moniter Room
Film Room
Cafe
Seating/View
Director Office
Assistant Coach
Head Coach Office
Offices
Laundry
Dorms
Stdy Room
Computer Lab
The Dorm Entrance
The Entrance The Basketball Court
Lines of Sight
On the left is a model we created half way through our design period. Using both digital rendering and physical model making to encapture the nature that surounds it.
On the right is the final model. Learning from drawing and models we developed the design to incorporate the landscape and nature.
Lines of Sight
