Enter Azalea and be transported into a lush, earthy space where strange tokens glimmer through the trees. Obscure shrines left behind by seekers and wanderers, these everyday items become sacred aspects of an unknown ritual. The setting sun’s amber glow reveals a path through deepening shadows in the pine scrub, where a weathered cabin seems long vacant. Through the canopy of vines, an eerie silence descends, broken only by occasional hooting owls. An energy seems to bubble up from underfoot as you’re drawn in deeper. Give in to the pull of Florida’s timeless magic and mysterious promise and disappear into her swampy interior to begin anew.

The Azalea installation is designed to honor the sacred environments of central Florida with an analog, abstracted woodland environment crafted from reclaimed materials. This immersive and interpretive mixed-media collaboration was inspired in part by several journeys to Cassadaga, a Florida hub for spiritualists and mediums, founded in 1875 and widely referenced as the Psychic Capital of the World. Works by Kym O’Donnell were further inspired by a doomed film studio that existed briefly on Florida’s Weedon Island during the 1930s.

Crafted from salvaged materials, the installation’s fiber foliage, curated assemblages, and large-scale wall collages create a layered homage to arcane facets of Floridian history.

Azalea was originally proposed and selected for inclusion (under the title “Azalea Camp”) for an immersive art concept in Tampa that was forced to halt production in mid-2023. This updated installation remixes more than three years of work by artists Emily Stone, Mitzi Jo Gordon, Kym O’Donnell, and Joe Griffith into a new representation of Florida’s natural mystery.