Arts for Transit and Urban Design

Avenue U

Jason Middlebrook

Brooklyn Seeds, 2011

Glass mosaic

Jason Middlebrook's mosaic installation, "Brooklyn Seeds," is a monumentally-scaled garden of wildflowers climbing up the stair wall extending from Avenue U to the elevated train platform. Created in glass mosaic, the choice of plants is based upon local wildflowers that grow in unlikely places, through cracks in the sidewalk, alleys, and walls. Middlebrook's work explores the place where the urban and manmade intersect with the natural to survive and flourish. These flowers, often weeds, include such local specimens as spotted knapweed, burdock, golden rod, aster, milkweed and daises. Above many of the mosaic plants are airborne seed pods floating away to germinate, on a journey of their own.