Solitary Garden

A raised garden bed thick with green herbs and shrubs sits on a ground of dry pine needles, a slender trellis rising from its center. Behind it, a pale gallery building and tall dark trees catch the late afternoon sun.
Tall green bamboo and young shrubs rise from a fresh bed of dark soil edged in wood. People in sun hats kneel and bend to plant, a white plinth and a pale building behind them, oak shade at the edge.
Title
Solitary Garden
Artist
Jackie Sumell
Tim Young
Date
2019–ongoing
Description
A garden built within the footprint of a solitary confinement cell and planted at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences, UC Santa Cruz, by artist and prison abolitionist Jackie Sumell in collaboration with Tim Young. Part of Sumell’s Solitary Gardens project and the IAS Visualizing Abolition initiative, the work turns the architecture of isolation into a space of growth and care.
Artwork Type
Environmental Art
Social Practice Art
Installation
Materiality
Living Organisms
Plant Materials
Soil
Wood
Climate & Ecology Themes
Food Systems and Seed Sovereignty
Land Stewardship and Conservation
Environmental Justice
Concepts
Healing and Repair
Care and Reciprocity
Methods & Approaches
Social Practice
Community-Based Practice
Activism / Direct Action
Audience / Engagement Type
Public / General Audience
Community
Location
Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, California
Geographic Scope
Site-Specific / Single Site
Rights
Rights held by artist or creator
Website
solitarygardens.org
Affiliated Organizations
UCSC Institute of the Arts and Sciences
Discipline / Field
Arts & Design
Item sets
California Art & Climate Archive
UC Santa Cruz
Media
A raised garden bed thick with green herbs and shrubs sits on a ground of dry pine needles, a slender trellis rising from its center. Behind it, a pale gallery building and tall dark trees catch the late afternoon sun.Jackie Sumell and Tim Young, Solitary Garden
Tall green bamboo and young shrubs rise from a fresh bed of dark soil edged in wood. People in sun hats kneel and bend to plant, a white plinth and a pale building behind them, oak shade at the edge.Jackie Sumell and Tim Young, Solitary Garden (planting)