Hollow Oak Our Palace Is
Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler
1989, Stenciled cocoa mat, Unlimited edition , Courtesy of Mel Ziegler, Austin, Texas, Tang Museum, October 1 – December 30, 2005
This affordable, unlimited edition of welcome mats was produced in response to the imminent displacement of Real Art Ways (a Hartford, Connecticut alternative arts space) by the Oak Leaf Development Corporation, a real estate concern. The leaf-shaped mats are labeled with the scientific name of the white oak tree—quercus alba—and are drawn from leaves taken from the city’s Charter Oak, a fabled ancient tree in which the state’s charter was hidden from the British representatives of King James II, who demanded the dissolution of the colony in 1687. The funds generated by selling the mats went to support Real Art Ways’ move. The title is from a sea shanty, A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea, written by Allan Cunningham (1784–1842), an eminent botanist.