Sayler/Morris

Hudson, United States

Susannah Sayler and Edward Morris work with photography, video, writing, and installation to explore changing notions of nature, culture, and ecology. Their place-based work often involves historical research. They have received fellowships including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2023), New York Artist Fellowship (2016), Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2014), and the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard Graduate School of Design (2008). Their work has been exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally at venues such as the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Kunsthal Rotterdam, and the Belvedere Museum, among others. Sayler teaches in the Film and Media Arts Department at Syracuse University, and Morris is Executive Director of Marble House Project. Their archives are held by the Nevada Museum of Art / Reno, Center for Art and Environment. They co-founded The Canary Project in 2006, producing visual media on climate change, and Toolshed in 2020, a platform connecting ecological thought and action.

2025 Biennial Project

Project Overview

The Crystal Forest

The Crystal Forest is a multimedia project that reflects on the Amazon as both a real place and a symbol shaped by outside ideas. Inspired by a crumbling university building in the Ecuadorian jungle—where mirrored glass meets overgrown vines—the work explores what happens when modern dreams fade and nature reclaims space.

The project includes a short film, collage, photography, and animation. These pieces ask: How do we imagine the Amazon? Who gets to define it? Using images from archives, AI, and the forest itself, the artists examine the clash between local life and global ideas.

Referencing the Crystal Palace of 1851, a symbol of industrial power, The Crystal Forest offers its opposite: a vision of beauty, decay, and resilience. It invites visitors to consider the Amazon not just as “the lungs of the Earth,” but as a living home full of meaning, memory, and mystery.

Chicago Architecture Biennial