Filifera
Filifera, exhibition view, 2025
Filifera, exhibition view, 2025
Filifera, exhibition view, 2025
Filifera
Dead palm frond (from the oldest palm tree in Los Angeles)
UV-resistant ESG float glass, 4 mm
MDF
90cm x 90cm x 40cm
The palm, a Washingtonia filifera, now stands at the crossroads before the LA Memorial Coliseum as a living witness to the city’s semi-tropical ambitions. It began its life in the canyons of Southern California before being transplanted in the mid 1850s to San Pedro Street, then just a outpost of a growing town. By the late 1880s, it was relocated to the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Arcade Depot, where it greeted new arrivals to the “land of sunshine.” When the depot closed in 1914, public outcry spared the tree from destruction, and it was moved again to its current site, where it still endures.
As one of two works deconstructing and embedding early mythologies for the forthcoming film installation Arcadia Chimera (2026), Filifera serves as a cinematic precursor.