Public Installations

Bankemper's public installations grow out of 20 years of commitment to creating urban gardens with the help of surrounding communities. The artist has worked on projects in New York, Boston, Palermo, Italy and San Antonio, Texas; as well as other cities addressing the relationship of people to nature as reflected in the contemporary urban landscape. Her garden projects are not ordinary or formal gardens; they range from restorative healing herb gardens, to gardens based on the shape of the human body, to planting 600 giant sunflowers, which grow from the ruins of a Southern flour mill. For each of her garden projects, the artist worked within a conceptual framework, each a kind of sculpture in nature as well as political action often blurring the boundaries between art and life.

Black Currant Jam, 2014

Installation view. FOODshed: Art and Agriculture in Action; SmackMellon, Brooklyn, New York. Curated by Amy Lipton.

SOUL, 2012

The Farm Project: Collaborative Concepts at Saunder's Farm, Garrison, New York. 60 x 12 x 4 feet.

Photo courtesy Aleta Wolf

SOUL, 2012

Detail of installation.

Photo courtesy Aleta Wolf

SOUL, 2012

Installation of SOUL, Bankemper layers aged straw, cow and chicken dung.

Photo courtesy Aleta Wolf

SOUL, 2012

Bankemper collects cow dung for SOUL, a contemporary compost pile.

Photo courtesy Aleta Wolf

SOUL, 2012

Installation view of a contemporary compost pile.

Willa, A Medicinal Garden, 2009

Schuylkill Center, Philadelphia, PA. Down to Earth: Artists Create Edible Landscapes, curated by Amy Lipton. Willa, A Medicinal Garden, designed in the form of the Venus of Willendorf. The healing properties were planted in the 'Venus's' specific body parts.

Fast as a Bunny, Clean as a Whistle: A Bird Observation Deck, 2006

Bird houses made out of hand-cast ceramics. Garden Improvement, curated by Jennifer McGregor, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY.

Fast as a Bunny, Clean as a Whistle: A Bird Observation Deck, 2006

Detail

Home, 2005

"Inside/Outside Passages", Abington, PA. Ceramic, metal pole. Bird house and flowering garden (Flowering plants to create seeds for migrating birds).

Home, 2005

Detail of "Home", a bird house, ceramic, metal pole and flower garden.

Skull Birdhouse, 2005

Abington, PA. "Inside/Outside Passages" curated by Amy Lipton.

“A Cutting Garden/Flowers for Sale,” Sobriety Garden, Bellevue Hospital, New York, NY, 2000-2004

Poster for a flower sale, Bellevue Hospital, NY, NY. Bankemper worked as a "horticultural therapist" at the "drug and alcohol" rehab clinic at Bellevue Hospital. One project executed with recovering patients was creating a cutting garden from seed. Bouquets from the garden were made, and a weekly flower sale at the hospital created a change in paradigms; for the patients as well as visitors to the hospital who purchased the bouquets.

“A Cutting Garden/Flowers for Sale,” Sobriety Garden, Bellevue Hospital, New York, NY, 2000-2004

Virgin Birdhouse, 2001

Charlotte, NC.

Dovetail Garden, 2001

Charlotte, NC. A community garden. The interior are community plots, modeled after the "M'finga Kalunga Garden" in downtown NY. The exterior gardens were planted to create feed for migrating birds.

Dovetail Garden, 2001

Installation view.

A Gardner's Diary, 2000

Medicinal Garden Installation, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA.

A Gardener's Diary, 2000

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA.

A Gardener's Diary, 2000

Medicinal Garden, 2000

Installation of "Medicinal Garden", Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

A Gardener's Diary, 2000

Sophie's Garden, 1998

Artpace, San Antonio, TX, 1998

Sophie's Garden, 1998

600 Mammoth Sunflowers on the roof of an old parking lot. The seeds from the sunflowers became a food source for birds. Artpace, San Antonio, TX.

Sophie's Garden, 1998

Detail.

Sophie's Garden, 1998

Detail.

Sophie's Garden, 1998

Detail.

Sophie's Garden, 1998

600 Mammoth Sunflowers planted in an historic flour mill, San Antonio, TX.

Sophie's Garden, 1998

On the roof at Artpace. San Antonio, TX.

Sophie's Garden, 1998

Detail of Sophie's Garden, San Antonio, TX.

Urban Guerilla Gardening Kit, 1998

Mail art project, a seed bomb. 1500 packages were sent, each package contained seeds in a balloon with instructions to fill with water and throw over fences into abandoned lots. This project was in memory of Liz Christy, mother of the Green Guerillas and the community garden movement, NYC.

Medicinal Garden, 1995

Detail of a "Medicinal Garden", Brooklyn NY. Creative time, Inc. "Afirmitive Action, Artist at Work". "Art in the Anchorage".

Medicinal Garden, 1995

"Medicinal Garden", Brooklyn NY. Part of Creative Time's "Art in the Anchorage", "Affirmative Action Artist at Work"