In the form of a ceramic sphere atop a native meadow in McGolrick Park, the piece bridges divides between the neighborhood's disparate subcultures by serving as a collective portrait of the community through embodying residents' personal homelands and migration stories.
With the rising displacement and relocation of peoples across the world, Ziemia responds to the need for collective reflection in communities on migration as not merely a global phenomenon, but as a local, micro experience that unites us all.
The project includes many Poles who have lived in Greenpoint for generations, and Wawrzyniak personally traveled to Poland to collect soil on behalf of Polish residents who were unable to make the journey.
The public art piece serves as a central location for events to encourage cross-cultural exchange and initiate dialog about immigration and the human relationship with the natural world.
Both pieces are tactile recordings of a daily performance, and in speaking about the months-long process, Wawrzyniak says: "I felt like I was sharing my meals with the public every day and made a conscious effort to be creative in my choice of ingredients.
Furthermore, also included in the Feed exhibition were two small-scale sculptures: a casting of the negative space of the inside of the artist's mouth out of edible golden candy and the hollow of her abdomen out of confectionery gum paste.
In her Smell Me exhibition at envoy enterprises, New York in fall 2012, Wawrzyniak created an installation reflecting a year-long project where she acted as both investigator and subject exploring and capturing her biological essence.
In an interview with New York Times Magazine, Wawrzyniak explains, "In today's society we do everything we can to mask the natural scent of our bodies, thus forgoing an ancient form of animal communication.
The resultant piece, Eau De M, which consisted of the artist's sweat essence delivered by way of a magazine scent-strip fragrance advertisement, appeared as a double-sided insert in the full print run of the May 2014 issue of Harper's Bazaar.
[2] In a review of the show, Artinfo described Wawrzyniak as owing "an allegiance both to the vamping of pinup girls and straightforward commercial portraiture", and praised the project as a "serious, well-crafted, yet approachable work that isn't afraid to handle sexuality with a mix of humor, drama, and the occasional dash of mysticism".