Chloë Bass’s Soft Services (2022) encompasses a series of sculptural stone benches inscribed with phrases written by the artist and marked with a silhouette of a local plant rendered in light-responsive pigment. Applied in Optima font, each inscription pays tribute to the typeface used by Maya Lin in her Vietnam Veterans Memorial while also recalling the minimalist branding of contemporary wellness companies. As a result of these associations, Bass’s project emerges as a simultaneous act of grieving and care. Deeply tied to its site in Volunteer Park in Seattle, a location of AIDS activism, Soft Services nods to the funds from the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act, which were distributed for “soft services,” non-medical types of support considered beneficial to those with the virus. Further reinforcing its connection to its site, the outdoor installation incorporates flora unique to the area. Highlighting native, cultivated, and invasive plants whose presence in Volunteer Park is tied to human intervention, Bass’s imagery invites viewers to make connections between the natural world and modern medicine, as well as mythological botanical histories. Juxtaposing what is cultivated with what is allowed to grow wild, Bass articulates the precarity of our present moment, drawing parallels between recent tragedies and historic losses.
