MOCA Tucson wants your plant matter and debris for a new art installation 🍃

The museum and the artist behind the installation, Cecilia Vicuña, are seeking leftover plant matter and inorganic debris from your yards, gardens and sidewalks to help complete the project. The materials must be lightweight and small-scale.

“Collected materials might include: seed pods, dried plants, twigs, broken jewelry, natural or synthetic fibers, plastics, bits of metal, small pieces of wood, and remnants from carpentry, mechanical workshops, studios, or home work,” according to MOCA Tucson’s website.

The contributions will go toward Vicuña’s immersive art installation “Sonoran Quipu,” which is a “collectively-generated installation composed of hundreds of hanging knotted fibers that evoke ancient quipus, which are Indigenous Andean recording devices,” MOCA Tucson said in a press release.

The installation is set to run from Jan. 27, 2023, to August 2023.

“At MOCA, Vicuña’s ‘Sonoran Quipu’ combines the artist’s signature sculptural forms — the monumental quipu and the precario — to create a large-scale installation that connects cultural memory, place-based materiality, and participatory practices. Vicuña is in dialogue with the ancient Indigenous technology of the quipu, which was banned by the Spanish during the colonization of the Americas, by enlarging the form and incorporating contemporary materials,” according to MOCA Tucson's press release.

Those looking to donate materials can drop them off at MOCA Tucson during their open hours through Sunday, Jan. 8. The museum is currently open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays, but will be closed for the holidays Dec. 23 through Jan. 4.

MOCA Tucson encourages you to collect the materials responsibly — only donate what's on your personal property and plant matter that is no longer attached to a living plant. Avoid collecting material from public spaces or government-owned sites, according to MOCA Tucson's website. You'll also receive free admission to the museum upon donating.

Vicuña is a 74-year-old international artist and poet from Santiago, Chile, who lives and works in her homeland and New York. 

Some of her work has been featured in the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, The Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., according to the press release. During her time as an artist, she has published 27 volumes of art and poetry.

For more information about “Sonoran Quipu” and MOCA Tucson’s call for contributions, visit their website.