Wormarie, 2021     Adventures in vermicomposting                                                                             A collaboration with a community of red wigglers. 

Inspired by the red wiggler worm, I created the artwork Wormarie in collaboration with 120 red wigglers. Composed of soil, repurposed cardboard, newspaper, brown twine, tea bags, toilet paper rolls, eggshells, vegetable scraps, rotting fruit, coffee grinds, soil, coconut coir, shells, and stale bread. In addition to demonstrating the power of artmaking and worm community collaboration, the project engaged my family in a dialogue about food waste, food choices, and environmental stewardship.

Red wigglers (Eisenia fetida), are very well suited to the domestic setting. They thrive in the same temperature ranges as humans and eat many of the same foods. When provided with a dark, moist enclosure, they remain unseen, unheard, and undetected by smell, They can eat half of their weight of food per day and, since they eat food and paper waste, they are one of the most efficient home waste processing systems around. Red worms eat the offensive, smell-emitting microorganisms that grow on decomposing organic waste, therefore a worm bin indoors doesn’t smell. The cast that these worms produce can then be used for gardening.

They help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions by eating food waste that would otherwise create methane when decomposing in landfills. 

Vermicompost; valuable soils produced by worms recycling food scraps. Vermicompost is beneficial to plants, the worms cycle nutrient-rich fruit and vegetable scraps, turning them into nutrient-rich compost. As the worms create their rich compost and liquid gold for my garden and plants, I wanted to do something for the worms.

Things I did for worms:

I made them a designer worm blanket from toilet paper rolls, brown paper, and string.            And a blanket of coils from the New York Times.                                                                                      I drew them some flowers with soil paint and this became another worm blanket.  Perhaps they will add worm squiggles?                                                                                                                               I prepared a box full of finely chopped kitchen scraps, including eggshells, shells, vegetable scraps, ground-up stale bread & arranged as a moon landscape.                                                           I gave them each a shell from the beach as a thank you.                                                                      And a smiling rock offering to wiggle on. As well as a bed of soggy leaves

Future plans: I am designing and building them a four-storey modern house inspired by Mies van der Rohe out of oak, with draws that pull out, a slide for slithering on, a green roof, rocks, shells, and a spigot to collect their liquid gold.

I began to dream of worms. 

Worm poem 

After Kaveh Akber 

The sunset on the tree is a composting worm

Worms are sprouting from the flowerbeds

Worms are gushing out of the sprinklers

The dog has wiggling worms hanging in his mouth

The fridge is filled with worms 

The lawn mower leaves a trail of worms

Teenagers are texting each other worm pictures

Artists are posting and liking worms on Instagram

Families in Brooklyn are vermicomposting

Mothers chop rotting vegetables, their children grab stripy worms with dirty fingers, who are 

worms themselves, their laughs are a kind of worm

Worms are my hair

My laptop has worms in folders

The mouse rolls worms

In the apple is a worm

The earthworm is the earth’s lover

I wish I was worm, roaming, with no stress

A gentle, generous and fat

Creature of the damp and dark

A silent turning worm