Michael Murrell

Ivy Canoe, 2009
2.5' x 3' x 11'



ARTIST STATEMENT

The great naturalist Edward O. Wilson feels the most significant threat to species is introduced species outcompeting native plants and animals. Numerous examples of this competition can be found locally and regionally. It is believed that zebra mussels from Asia were released in ballast water from ships into the Great Lakes. They choke out native plants and animals, and now threaten the Mississippi watershed and are feared to potentially devastate the Chesapeake Bay. Our chestnut and dogwood trees battle introduced fungai that kills most of them. The woolly adelgid (an Asian insect) is systematically spreading in hemlock trees from North Carolina throughout the Appalachians and is now killing hemlocks in North Georgia. Escaped aquarium scorponfish now populate southern Atlantic waters. Worldwide numbers of amphibians have plummeted by a fungus spread by African Bullfrogs brought to the Americas.

The canoe is constructed of introduced English Ivy that was strangling a popular tree. The canoe, a symbol of easy transportation, makes it easy for troublesome species to cross thousands of miles in hours.