Holyoke, Beth and Käthi Seidl, Nature’s Interplay, 2016

Beth Holyoke and Käthi Seidl
Nature’s Interplay, 2016
Concrete, aluminum, ceramic, glaze, glass
Location: Habitat Environmental Center, 3036 Bellflower Street, Kettering

Artists Beth Holyoke and Käthi Seidl designed, fabricated and installed a permanent, site-specific artwork at the Habitat Environmental Center, incorporating approximately 120 aluminum tiles created by Kettering City School students. The following thematic concepts were included: nature, sustainability, interactivity and functionality for park visitors.

A scavenger hunt for animals, plants, trees and insects hidden within the artwork can be viewed here!

Nature's Interplay

This project began in 2013, when over 100 students from several Kettering City Schools created images in sandcast molds, incorporating animals, insects and plants. These images were cast in aluminum, creating tiles with three-dimensional reliefs, in a special workshop at Rosewood Arts Centre in Kettering, Ohio. Artists Holyoke and Seidl responded by creating nature inspired ceramic tiles that incorporated the students images, and embedding all into a unified landscape and sitting area.

Thank you to the Kettering City Schools and art instructors Susan Bennett, Patti Boone, Mark Harris, Lindsey Gustafson and Michele Clark, along with the students of Southdale Elementary, Kettering Middle School, Van Buren Middle School and Fairmont High School. Thank you to Dawn Kraker, Esther Mata and Greenmont Elementary students. Additional thanks to artists Jon Barlow Hudson and Bernie Carreño, the incredible staff of Rosewood Arts Centre and the Habitat Environmental Education Center, the City of Kettering’s Parks Department, the City of Kettering’s Art in Public Places Committee, Mayor Patterson and Kettering City Council.

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