In the spring of 2014, the Center for Strategic Art and Agriculture is pleased present Invasive Pigments, a garden and visual art exhibition by Ellie Irons. Utilizing CSAA’s garden to grow plants pervasive in, but non-native to Bushwick, Irons will use her harvest to create colorants for infographic maps tracing the plants’ origin and territorial expansion. Bringing the project full circle, Irons’ works will be exhibited in CSAA’s gallery in the fall of 2014.

Exploring ideas of heritage, history, and human interaction with and intervention in the natural world, Invasive Pigments investigates humanity’s unwitting role in propagating certain species over others through its many migrations as well as its ever evolving definition of useful and non-useful plants.

Drawings from Invasive Pigments were recently included in Wave Hill’s exhibition Drawn to Nature and featured in a related article in the New York Times. The project was installed in the Queens Botanical Garden Gallery during the Summer and Fall of 2013, and will be featured in an upcoming issue of the environmental studies journal Wild Project.

Based in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Irons is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the interplay of humanity and ecology through drawings, environmental sculpture, and electronic media. Born in rural Northern California, Irons studied art and environmental science at Scripps College and received her MFA at Hunter College in fall 2009.