Caroline Monnet: Man-made Land
Caroline Monnet’s *Man-made Land* is a site-responsive installation created for the ICA’s Sandra and Gerald Fineberg Art Wall. Responding to the museum’s position on Boston Harbor, the work reflects on the city’s four-century history of land reclamation and the artificial landscape on which the ICA stands.
Monnet, an Algonquin-Anishinaabe and French artist born in 1985 in Ottawa, uses commercial construction materials including Tyvek, plastic, and foil insulation. Through extensive cutting, piecing, and sewing, she transforms these industrial materials into layered geometric circles and lines derived from Anishinaabeg visual traditions found in regalia, birch bark baskets, and beadwork. Fractal-like “blooms” spread across the installation, evoking both constructed land and the interconnectedness of living things, while considering how cultural knowledge and values are passed between generations.
When: September 25, 2025–March 21, 2027
Showtimes: No specific showtimes are listed. The installation is presented on the Sandra and Gerald Fineberg Art Wall during its exhibition dates.
Venue: Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Sandra and Gerald Fineberg Art Wall
Artist: Caroline Monnet, Algonquin-Anishinaabe and French, born 1985 in Ottawa, Ontario
Description: The installation accompanies *An Indigenous Present*, a thematic exhibition covering 100 years of contemporary Indigenous art. Its geometric forms and expanding blooms respond to the ICA’s harbor setting, Boston’s land reclamation, and Anishinaabeg design traditions.
Materials: Tyvek, plastic, foil insulation, and other commercial building materials transformed through hand-cutting, piecing, and sewing
Organizers: Jeffrey Gibson and Jenelle Porter, guest curators, with Erika Umali, Curator of Collections, and Max Gruber, Curatorial Assistant
Support: Support is provided by Jean-François and Nathalie Ducrest. The project was also developed with the B Street Collaborative and the Conseil des arts de Montréal.
Tickets: Price not available