Grumman Greenhouse
Lenfest Plaza
This crashed and artfully crumpled full-size airplane is titled “Grumman Greenhouse,”. The creation of 27-year-old Jordan Griska was installed in 2011.
The plane is a U.S. Navy Grumman Tracker S-2E, built in 1962. It flew from aircraft carriers. Mothballed in the 1980s, it had a second career helping to fight forest fires in California. Jordan bought it on eBay for about the same price as a cheap used car.
Inspired by origami, Jordan folded the Grumman to look like it had nose-dived into the ground. He then replaced its cockpit innards with a working greenhouse, lit from within by LED grow lights, powered by solar panels on the wings. “The light tells people there’s something more going on, inside,” said Jordan, who hopes it will attract people who might otherwise run away from a crashed airplane. The magenta color is a serviceable spectrum for plant growth, and Jordan liked it.
The artist, who sees his work as a metaphor for recycling and repurposing, picks up seedlings from a local nursery, raises them in the airplane for a month, then delivers the herbs, peppers, and kale to City Harvest, which feeds poor families in the region. “It’s been a learning curve to get the temperature, light, and water right,” said Jordan. “I’m not gonna let my project not survive.”
Jordan says, “It’s not anti-military, it’s not anti-firefighter,” he said. “It’s about the plants growing in the plane.”
Jordan Griska is now based in Brooklyn having moved from Philadelphia in 2012. Jordan received a BFA from the University of Pennsylvania and a Certificate in Sculpture from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where he was awarded the Cresson Scholarship and Governor’s Award. His work has been featured in exhibitions at Esther Klein Gallery, Fleisner Ollman Gallery, Scope Art Fair in Miami, and Philadelphia Contemporary. Jordan has created public installations at Eastern State Penitentiary, the Governors Island Art Fair and Socrates Sculpture Park.
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