Final Project: Rooted

Rooted is an interactive cabinet built at a time when community feels more fragile than ever. In a political climate that increasingly targets and divides the people who make up our communities by origin, by identity, and by belief, this project is a quiet act of resistance. A reminder that we are more alike than we are different and that the connections between us matter.

The cabinet invites you to contribute a single reflection. A value, a truth, something you would teach someone. Your response appears as a leaf on a monitor inside the cabinet, falling and settling alongside everyone else’s.

No name attached. No response ranked above another. Every leaf falls the same way.

Rooted’s sculptural forms draw from the Baroque stucco bas-relief tradition. This technique, originating in ancient Rome and refined through the Italian Baroque period, is made of sculpted forms that are built up from a flat surface to create depth and dimension. In Baroque interiors, this technique gave walls a sense of life and presence through layered, hand-modeled forms. Rooted applies the same principle: tree branches are sculpted directly onto the cabinet doors using plaster of paris over a pool noodle armature, building outward from the surface the same way craftsmen built stucco relief onto walls centuries ago.

Rooted’s live exhibition took place on April 24th, 2026 at the ATLAS Expo. It will remain a semi-permanent installation in the main lobby of the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder until August, 2026.