ana macarthur
Mumuru -
the victoria amazonica
After two additional molding attempts in a return
trip in 2008, MacArthur achieved a successful
impression of the giant water lily. Extensive
research was done before hand on mold making
materials and procedures, with upmost priority
given to finding non toxic materials and leaving the
sites of molding the plant with no trace that she had
been there... no trace of components of the
industrialized world. Brazilian friends made during
the 1993 trip became critical guides to assisting in
the project and finding good locations where the
v. amazonica existed. Their caboclo and rubber
tapper backgrounds assisted MacArthur in
understanding special behaviors of organisms of
the rainforest. MacArthur admired and learned from
the caboclo and their river knowledge, as well as an
expat who had been a rainforest guide for 20 years,
as they skillfully assisted her in fetching lily pads,
avoiding the demise of piranha and jacare (crocodile).
The two recent excursions to Amazonia, Brazil have
expanded MacArthur's knowledge of the significance
of sunlight and massive amounts of water that
through interplay contribute to the world's richest
biodiversity. MacArthur had considered molding the
plant in the USA, as it grows in botanical gardens
and some private homes, but in the end she felt
tremendously drawn to go back to its original home,
where she could learn more about its context.
The
plant starts as a tuber deep in the mud at the
bottom of the river, which sends up 5-6 shoots each
yielding eventually an impressive lily pad. These lily
pads go through a cycle of replacement every 50-60
days. This understanding alleviated any concern for
harming the plant. This plant is not endangered yet
MacArthur sees it as a symbol of the biological
richness present in this region and cultivated by the
steady sunlight throughout the year at this equatorial
zone. Through the potential and real destruction due
to climate change, millions of years of evolution could
disappear forever.
A series of art works have resulted from this project
thus far, "Where Light Meets Water, Mumuru on the
Equator, T11a" ,a 15 ft. scroll, and "Where Light
Meets Water, Mumuru on the Equator, T12a", an
installation including the display of the 5 ft diameter
mold of a victoria amazonica lily pad. Called by
most of the locals the victoria hegia, the plant was
renamed the victoria amazonica years ago.
MacArthur references it as Mumuru, the name given
it by the Tipi Indians, a tribe who have been some of
the longest human inhabitants of the region.
MacArthur's interest and work for years integrating
the physics of light, comes into relevance as she
explores both in this organism and in this larger body
of work, the significant role of sunlight within the
abundance of life in this bioregion.



Photo credit: Ana MacArthur