Alyssa Dennis

I'm a native of Baltimore, MD who now lives and has a studio practice in Brooklyn, NY. In addition to being an artist I am currently learning permaculture design and how to be clinical herbalist. In 2016, I collaborated on a very exciting project with New Orleans Airlift and Ranjit Bhatnagar to design and build a structure for the Music Box Village. As of 2017, I started an environmental advocacy project called Common Knowledge. Its goal is to create educational tools that engage city dwellers in the amazing wild medicine that grows all around them. Common Knowledge believes that the disconnection of shared knowledge about what thrives along our foot path is at the root of cultural and environmental degradation. CK believes that the gifts of these common plants should once again exist as common knowledge.

I hold an MFA from Tulane University and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. I have also attended the Solar Energy International, Carbondale, CO and Maryland University of Integrative Health. I've doing research on various alternative building and construction methods since 2005 which include straw bale and adobe construction, living roof installation and historic restoration. I often extend my interests in habitual spaces by doing concept illustration for various projects as well as being involved with grass-roots community work.

My work explores architecture and constructed spaces as an ecosystem — a multi-functional environment where nothing operates independently. It is a visual amalgamation of the choreographed domain and the iterative nature of the un-choreographed. There is a play of inside and outside where spaces are interconnected and visibility opens from one area to the next. My mediums include drawing, photography, model making, sculpture and installation. While I use processes derivative of those of an architectural practice, my purpose is not to visualize an end result or a fixed plan. My work deconstructs architecture by creating speculative, modular systems that are infinitely changeable and within the power of every inhabitant to transform.