Joy´s masterpiece „future-islands“ showed the world as a fragile installation of floating gardens in front of the town-hall of Hanover in summer 2009.
The continents were built of a fortified styrofoam structure and planted with flowers, agricultural plants, bushes, grass and herbs. A solar-powered light-installation illuminated the coastlines at night and 12 warning lights marked the positions of upcoming climate change disasters. Ducks and chicken immediately inhabited the new lands and breeded two generations on future-islands.
Beside the pure beauty of the floating gardens, future-island focussed on the climate change related sea-level rise. The thematic exhibition and interactive happenings with schools and eco-cultural organizations showed clearly, which coastal regions, shallow islands and oceanic biospheres are highly endangered.
Apart from being an art project, future islands explored, monitored and proved the feasibility of cultivating all kinds of plants on floating beds. The developed low-tech self-watering system through capillary action has become one of the basic principles of the ongoing „asap-island“ project.
After the presentation period, Joy donated the future-islands to a befriended amusement park, where the islands still float and grow.
> future-islands website (german)
Art and related activities of Joy Lohmann 