Since there was no weight limit for animals being installed on the floor, artists were able to build them using cardboard armatures, packing paper, and masking tape. This process required many weeks of experimentation, hard work, and tenacity.

In creating Pollinator Power!, 2023's installation, we learned a lot about the magical possibilities and

technical challenges of suspending animals from above. James and Jelani made this monkey light enough to swing from the branches by using a plastic bottle, sculpture wire, bubble wrap, and tape.

Kate used tissue paper over packing tape to make her luna moth's wings transculent.

We learned a lot from our early tree experiments. Artists tried different techniques with recycled materials to find a design that was stable and easy to transport and replicate.

Designers used different aspects of each of these attempts to create a final prototype. This process gave all of us a new appreciation for the way trees are able to support their height and branches!

For the final tree design, we rolled up cardboard we got from big boxes, painted it, and then rolled it back up around cylinders that fit over 5-gallon buckets weighed down with sand. Branches made out of heavy tubes from Gaffney Fabrics were screwed into the walls and each other to help stabilize the trees.

Splatter painting created a mossy texture and was really fun!

Making the room disappear so the gallery could truly transform into a forest was a key feature of the installation. We painted 30’ long rolls of paper with house paint to create floor-to-ceiling hombre sky for the walls.

The translucent canopy for the ceiling was made from painted plastic supported by a system of ropes running across the gallery, that we also used for hanging flying creatures.

After the Design Team’s field trip to Under the Eaves at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Kenzie was inspired to create deep space by making a mural for the gallery’s back wall. You can see her final sketch hanging on a planter, the result of a long design process that included getting feedback from her team and the show’s other artists, and incorporating the room’s architecture into her design.

After getting help from Lucy to mass in the mural's big, bold shapes, Kenzie added detailed line work on the tree and river in the foreground to create a sense of deep space.

Some pieces had to be installed directly into the gallery. The Design Team decided to have a central rain feature, and the crystal strands that Clara and Calliope created for it transformed into rain when Calliope hung them in the gallery.

Installing Naomi’s creature inspired us to recreate the gallery’s night area to include a pool where it could commune with other big, water-loving noctural animals.

Seeing their individual artworks come together in an immersive environment and sharing it with the public made the artists see their artwork, and themselves, in a whole new way.

A flock of macaw parrots lead us into the rainforest.

We are immersed in the forest as soon as we enter the gallery.

A canopy fills the space above us.

An elephant and her child bathe in the rain.

The mural creates endless space, while its roots reach into our space.

A river runs along the wall.

Butterflies and dragonflies flutter above it.

Turtles made of hubcaps and snakes made from bicycle inner tubes swim through it.

Animals are above and below us.

A caiman alligator made from a venting hose slithers down from a tree, in front of rain made from bottle caps.

Nocturnal animals commune by a pool in a night scene.

A capybara made by an older artist inspired younger artists to make babies for it.

Luna moths flit over a red panda while frogs swim in the pool below.

Thanks for taking a walk in our rainforest!