rooted in ruins

Collaborative Artist Residency by Carolyn Sirois

The Overlook Gallery | Brighton, MA | April–May 2025

this collaborative residency aims to lift up reciprocity between humans and nature & between humans and humans.

as participating artists explore their relationships to ruins, to gardens, plants, soil and the earth, questions guiding their work include:

what are ruins to you? what lessons/insights do they bring to the here and now? what does a healing garden mean to each individual and to the collective? what might we say of the aesthetics of ruins?

Carolyn Sirois

Collaborators
Anne Barnes
Meghan Bailey
Brianna de L’airre
Nancy Hart
Dianne Pappas
Elizabeth Rennie
Nicole Weber
Wen-Hao Tien
Linda Forsythe

Installation mixed media artwork titled ‘Delusion 7.10.836’ by Elizabeth Rennie. The piece features a dynamic assemblage of materials, including draped beige and dyed fabrics, with vibrant splashes of pink and blue. Layers of sheer pink tulle cascade toward the floor, creating a soft, dreamlike quality. A checkerboard pattern of black, white, and red tiles anchors the composition. Abstract painted elements, such as gestural black marks and vibrant pastel gradients, are displayed on a central panel. To the side, textured, crumpled paper and expressive black ink shapes adorn a mounted canvas. The installation is framed by painted pink panels on the wall, giving the piece a vibrant, immersive atmosphere.

Remnants 16.12.04.13.25

Elizabeth Rennie & Carolyn Sirois
Mixed media installation
8’x7’x4′
2025

This mixed-media installation explores the fragile space between ruin and regeneration.

Dried flowers, soil, and palm fronds intertwine with synthetic fabric, wire, and twine to form a structure that evokes both decay and care.

The work considers ruins not as endings, but as sites of transformation-where memory, grief, and beauty coexist. Through acts of binding and layering, it gestures toward reciprocity between humans and nature, suggesting that healing emerges not from perfection, but from what is held together with intention.