Planter Boxes

2006 - Multiple spaces

Jim Duignan's planter box projects afford the viewer an intimate look into his childhood memories. In his youth, Duignan and his neighborhood friends would use their community's flower boxes as devices for exchanging discreet communications and storing childhood treasures… and contraband.

Among the most memorable of the planters is the inaugural Michael Piazza Memorial of 2006, which housed succulents and cacti that represented Piazza's resilience and exuberance; 2011's GUN, which serves as an actual receptacle for the safe disposal of firearms; and the recent 2016 Dunning Poor Farm Memorial. This planter pays homage to Duignan's youth participation in Eagle Scouts. Soil from the Dunning Insane Asylum, an institution known among Chicago's youth for its macabre lore, nourishes spearmint, a common Midwestern weed.