A temporary installation on the ramp/bridge entranceway to the PAS building extension on the University of Waterloo campus. This installation consisted of a facsimile of Virginia Creeper growth assembled from twine and laser-cut Masonite. It was installed, over the course of several days of simulated “growth,” in November 2023.
The significance of this location, for purposes of this project, is that this was the “designated entrance” for the PAS building in the early stages of return to campus in late summer and early fall of 2020, following the COVID-19 campus lockdown that had gone into place in March of that year. When I booked an appointment to return briefly to my office in PAS in early October, I first had to complete “return to campus” training, which included instructions on designated building entrances and exits, direction of travel in corridors, logging of all visits, etc. This entrance, which we were required to use, is far from my office and for that reason largely unfamiliar to me.
When I approached the building for my first return visit to my office, the campus was deserted and nearly silent. One of the benches along the entrance ramp was half-covered in what looked like ivy that had grown up over the side of the ramp from the garden below. The image of the overgrown bench stuck with me long after my visit. It was as if nature was reclaiming this area following its desertion by humans. The seeming indifference of the natural world to the human tragedy that had unfolded over the past months gave rise to a sense of awe, or an experience of the sublime (in Edmund Burke’s sense, as a kind of existential terror accompanied by a feeling of smallness in the face of something vast).
From a bit of research (really, just looking at the information plaque placed in the nearby Woodland Fern Garden), I learned that the crawling vine I saw is Virginia Creeper. It covers much of the fern garden, the wall of the bridge/ramp, and two nearby columns that frame the entrance to the bridge/ramp from an approaching path. In reading more about the plant I discovered that it grows quite quickly (up to 20 feet per year) due to its rhizomes, which allow tendrils to bud asexually from existing branches, with part dropping roots into the ground (if available) and part extending stems for further growth. These tendrils attach to the supporting surface with little feet that turn out to be surprisingly difficult to dislodge (e.g. from walls). The internet seems equally filled with articles on how to grow Virginia Creeper and articles on how to remove it once it has overgrown its allotted space.
There is a clear parallel between the growth and spread of the COVID virus and that of the Virginia Creeper. Both are well adapted to grow quickly and spread far and wide. Neither has any explicit intention to damage their hosts, which in fact they are arguably not aware of. In both cases it is simply the logic of reproduction that leads them to spread. An analogous logic of reproduction, in this case industrial (re)production, was followed in constructing the installation materials using digital technology and a laser cutter.
Installed dimensions variable; total length 24 feet.
