LeArNing[D] (2023)

LeArNing[D] is a sculptural installation that reclaims a traditional school desk as a site of natural reclamation and resistance. Layered with soil, feathers, seed pods, sticks, and forest detritus, the piece confronts colonial and institutional ideas of “order” in education. Green ferns, hand-painted on the wood, reference both growth and the quiet power of non-human knowledge systems.
The desk appears to be sprouting from the earth—its legs rooted in a base of soil that spills out onto the sterile concrete floor. This tension between the organic and the institutional evokes questions about what is learned, unlearned, and buried within classroom walls. The added “[D]” in the title nods to both “land” and “decomposition,” suggesting that meaningful learning is entangled with decay, disruption, and return.