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Nature knows nothing of what we call Landscape, and even less of that which is cultivation.
If there is one thing that seven years working at a garden centre taught me
is that it's all an illusion, a pretence in which nature has little involvement.
Arcadia estranged... attempted to address this by creating an entirely
manufactured environment, where growth was forced by unaturally high temperatures
and extremely intense light. The growing arena revolved whilst being scrutinised
by the constant gaze of a video camera focused so close as to confuse scale
and perspective.
The earth became an alien territory, barren and sterile awaiting
growth.
The artifice extended to a total reliance upon items sourced unnaturally,
including harvested peat and grass seed from a box. The suspended slide refered
to a surrogate sky in miniature above the enlarged view of the soil and plant
matter which desperately craves the real thing. The space alongside the monitor
further removed nature from reality creating a state which is entirely false.
Corrupted. Estranged.
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The piece was originally installed as part of the Sheffield Hallam University
Degree Show Exhibition in June 1999.
As well as a greenhouse, the installation also utilized a real time video link
from a camera to a small monitor on a plinth facing the greenhouse. As the piece
progressed, during the three week show, the gradual growth of the grass was
relayed to the monitor creating two distinct versions of a natural process.
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