Lawns of Fox Run

Phoebe Shea Pérez ‘23

Paulson Initiative Intern 2019-20

My independent project aimed to explore and capture the diverse experiences people in my neighborhood have with their lawns. Through routine walks around my neighborhood, I slowly developed an interest in lawns. While the designs and color schemes of the houses in my neighborhood looked very similar, the different kinds of flowers, grasses, and ornaments were what individuated each house. I also became interested in lawns because of their duality: simultaneously personal and social. I found them fascinating because they were curated by an individual agent, but visible to an entire community. I wanted to learn about the relationships between people and their lawns and to explore, along the way, questions of place, crafting belonging, and the manipulation of nature. This project made me question the aspects of my neighborhood I had normalized. It also made me grapple, in a very personal way, with our collective environmental responsibilities. I hope to continue exploring the underlying stories and multiple perspectives that permeate and enrich the world we inhabit, and I hope others, too, feel inspired to explore their own place.

Find Lawns of Fox Run here