Drought and hungry gophers won't stop this Ontario artist

Living in Markham, Ont., Xiaojing Yan has spent her fair share of time at Milliken Mills Park. "It's not far from my home, so I go there often," says the artist. When her son was younger, the spot was a regular destination for soccer practice and swimming lessons, but these days, Yan's been drawn there for her own reasons.

Earlier this summer, the artist installed a new work on a small hill overlooking Kennedy Road. Its title is The Underground Sun, and every other week, Yan returns to the site. 

The piece is part of Learning From Mushroom, a city-wide exhibition in Markham parks. Other highlights include artist-led workshops, and all of the featured projects take inspiration from the interconnected nature of mycelial growth. 

The Underground Sun isn't much to look at right now, Yan says, and really, the installation is easy to miss entirely, despite occupying more than 750 square metres of the grounds. There's no signage yet, but if you know where to look, there are a few clues to its existence. Rows of wooden stakes can be seen from the sidewalk. They plot a rough-hewn shape: a jagged form with creeping tendrils. It's meant to suggest the wispy, branch-like structure of a mycelial network. According to Yan, the idea is to make the invisible visible. In nature, these fungal roots connect to form a vast underground web. 

It could take years before her vision for The Underground Sun is fully realized, but that's all part of the plan, she explains. A garden needs time to grow, and on the surface at least, that's what this project is.

The Underground Sun is a living artwork in the most literal sense. It is fully composed of perennial plants. They include yellow flowers such as goldenrod, evening primrose and black-eyed Susans. These species, which are among 11 employed in the piece, are all native to Ontario. In theory, the installation will burst with colour every year, producing new blossoms through spring, summer and fall. 

"We intentionally chose species that flower in different seasons," says Yan. "The work is always changing." When the plants have reached maturity — a process which could take as long as two years — those at the centre of the piece will rise a metre above the grass.

Yan has designed permanent public artworks before. In late July, she unveiled a trompe l'oeil monument to former Ontario Premier William G. Davis; the piece, which was created in collaboration with Lilly Otasevic, was installed in Brampton. But The Underground Sun breaks new ground in more ways than one. Although she's devoted years of her practice to experimenting with living materials, notably lingzhi mushroom spores, this is her first foray into something closer to land art. 

"We hope next year — because it's perennial — it can come back, but how much will come back and how will they come back?" says Yan Wu, public art curator for the City of Markham. "All these things are question marks, and I think that's what is making the work, the project, fascinating." 

In the short term, Yan has more immediate concerns, like whether the installation will survive the summer. The first round of planting took place in early June. Ecoman, a landscaping company based in the GTA, collaborated with Yan on the project, consulting on which plants to select and how to best realize the concept. 

Instead of clearing the land for a garden, Yan and the Ecoman team planted approximately 700 specimens directly into the lawn. "The idea is to allow the native species to compete and adapt and negotiate on their own terms," says the artist. 

Since then, The Underground Sun has hardly been left to fend for itself against the elements. Ecoman staffers return to the site every week to manicure the shape of the piece and tend to the plants. "We don't want it to be too wild," says Yan, "because then it would look like the city is not taking care of the lawn." Still, the plants have struggled this season, despite everyone's best efforts.

On Yan's last trip to the park, the grass surrounding the installation was brown and crispy. "It's so dry. We've had so little rain," says Jonas Spring, the owner and operator of Ecoman. To keep the installation well hydrated, his team must truck water into the site. "There's no water there," he says. "The grass is basically completely dormant."

That's not the least of their worries. Parched as the plants may be, they've still proven to be deliciously tempting to the park's resident fauna. According to Spring, a family of gophers has grown especially fond of The Underground Sun. 

"They come out and munch on the plants," he says. "We're dealing with the heat. We can't really do much about the groundhogs, I think."

And yet, Yan says the biggest obstacle she's faced on this project is simply finding the right location to bring her idea to life. After receiving a Canada Council for the Arts grant to realize the concept, she struggled to secure a sizeable plot of land that would also be accessible to the public. Through the Our Park program, curator Wu connected with the artist and offered her access to Milliken Mills Park. She saw something compelling in Yan's mycelium-inspired concept of patience, connection and transformation — and how it could also serve as a metaphor for community care and responsibility.

We're dealing with the heat. We can't really do much about the groundhogs, I think.- Jonas Spring, Ecoman owner and operator

Once the venue was locked in, Yan's next order of business was to find an expert who could help with the planting. She was already familiar with Spring's handiwork; Ecoman had designed the gardens at her studio. "They're not quite conventional plantings. They're very wild and thoughtful and expressive," says Yan. And Spring happens to be an artist himself, one who's also collaborated on plant-based installations in the past.

Spring, for his part, was intrigued by Yan's proposal, especially after he began researching her past work, including her experiments with mushrooms. For the project at Milliken Mills Park, he suggested approaching the lawn like the canvas of one of her spore paintings. 

"Any time we get to do an art installation is like getting paid to do something fun," says Spring. "The idea was that the grass that's not mowed becomes a green canvas or a green backdrop, and that the flowers that are flowering are the paint. They are the little bits of colour that accent and create interest.

It's not like other public-art pieces where you finish the install and just leave it there.- Xiaojing Yan, artist

"I think a lot of people will react to it as if it's a garden," says Spring, and like any garden, The Underground Sun will require much patience, care and attention. It's a fact that makes the whole endeavour compelling, he says. 

"If you make a sculpture, or you do a painting, it's basically like the best it's going to look on day one," says Spring. "But a perennial garden actually looks its worst on day one.

"It's going to change through time. It will have a trajectory through time. So in a way, it's art but it's in four dimensions," he says. "You don't want a painter to come back every year and touch [their work] up. But this is something different."

Yan has committed herself to the project. She'll keep returning to Milliken Mills Park as long as she's able. When she's there, she checks on the plants and captures some drone footage of the site. Eventually, she'll create a timelapse video of its evolution. The routine is satisfying she says; it's similar to the relaxation she feels while puttering in her backyard garden.

"I know [The Underground Sun] is for the public, but it's become more intimate — the process. … It's not like other public-art pieces where you finish the install and just leave it there," she says.

"Even if after a couple years [the plants] are established — established as we envisioned — in the next five or 10 years it's going to evolve in its own way, and still need care and attention," says Yan. "It's like raising a child."