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GO GREEN (2025), site-specific installation, reeds, wire mesh, DEPROEF., Drenthe, Netherlands.
GO GREEN is a site-specific installation created from locally harvested common reed (Phragmites australis). Rooted in ecological awareness, the work explores the relationships between material, environment, and process, reflecting on cycles of growth, decay, and renewal that sustain wetland ecosystems.
Harvesting forms an essential part of the installation’s concept and material integrity. In wetland habitats such as fens and marshes, reed is a dominant species that, if left unmanaged, can quickly outcompete other plants and reduce biodiversity. Regular cutting or grazing helps maintain balance and allows a diversity of species to thrive. Within this context, the act of gathering reed becomes an ecological gesture – an engagement with the landscape that acknowledges human responsibility within natural systems.
The installation uses every part of the plant – stems, leaves, and seed heads – assembled into a structure that allows air and light to move through it. Over time, the reeds dry, shift in tone, and slowly decompose, continuing to transform long after construction. This gradual process highlights the temporal and cyclical nature of wetland environments, where decay and regeneration exist in constant dialogue. GO GREEN functions as both an artwork and a living record of change, balance, and renewal.
The reed was sourced from a paludiculture pilot farm in the Hegewarren Polder, Fryslân, part of the NL2120 and VIP-NL projects. These initiatives investigate sustainable futures for peatlands in the Netherlands and explore how rewet soils can be used to grow crops such as reed and bulrush. Peatlands are vital carbon sinks, yet conventional drainage-based agriculture leads to subsidence and emissions. Paludiculture – rewetting peat soils and cultivating plants adapted to growing in waterlogged ground – offers a regenerative alternative that aligns agricultural productivity with ecological restoration. On this site, bulrush is the main crop, used to develop bio-based insulation materials.
By working with materials grown on rewet soils, GO GREEN connects artistic practice with research into sustainable land use and climate resilience. The installation invites reflection on how creative processes can participate in, rather than extract from, ecological systems. As the reeds continue to shift and disintegrate, the work embodies a quiet collaboration with natural forces – a reminder that impermanence, too, is a form of renewal.
GO GREEN is part of LIMBO, a collective exhibition on peatlands as terrains in flux. Initiated by RE-PEAT, the exhibition brings together artistic and research-based works that explore the ecological, cultural, and political dimensions of these shifting landscapes.
Collectively curated by Bethany Copsey, Judith Schubert, Lu Fraser, Moss Berke, Corinna Studier, and Laïsa Cordes, LIMBO positions peatlands as dynamic environments — living archives of change that invite reflection on how we relate to and care for fragile yet resilient ecosystems.
The exhibition is made possible with the generous support of the Andrea von Braun Foundation, Allianz Foundation, Wetlands Europe, and the Transnational Institute.