Cycle of Renewal

Born in Houston, Texas, Mel Chin is known for site-specific environmental art. Revival Ramp documents his Revival Field project in Minnesota, designed to draw toxins from the soil using hyperaccumulator plants. The ramp begins with a pastoral scene and trees based on Leonardo Da Vinci’s early-sixteenth-century drawing A Copse of Trees. The spiral moves down past industrial pollution to Chin’s installation and emerges in a fresh landscape where the trees appear to glow in the color of Leonardo’s original red chalk drawing.