Installation Experiments & Glasshouses

June 14, 2015

Installation Experiments & Glasshouses

Working on on idea for plant installation within the garden. I've been trying to use dried wood melick, (a long, green, bushy, grass which covers local woods) for some time, and felt it would make a good start to this project. I gathered bags full of the stuff, chopped it all up into little squares and stored it away. I tried various experiments to alter its form. I wanted to change the green, dense, grounded background of a forest, to a light and airy piece of work.

After various experiments (generally packing the pieces together, and therefore loosing desired effect, I thread them together with 'invisible' thread, but spaced out. I hung them inside the studio and then shortly after replicated it within a space in one of the glasshouses at the garden. This had no energy to it what so ever, and I decided that taking it outdoors would hopefully give the material some life.

Inside glasshouse space. Lack of energy, more web-like. Speaking to Claire, one of the gardeners who was helpful in my en devour to work with this material, suggested taking them outside with the wind.

Before hand: The center gazebo in Dundee Botanic Garden.

First try with two threads of dried wood melick, each end taped top and bottom to the open 'window'.

Getting interesting movement with the wind.

Hanging straight with no breeze, and form moving from rapid to slow, depending.

With a full row, the movement was easier to see. Surprisingly, they didn't tangle much.

Reminded me of wind chimes. Possibility of using sound.

Curves created using longer length to the size of window.

As seen from outside and within

So this is a thin test layer, which worked out quite well. I'm now going to try this with the same plant, but thicker, as well as using other plants...

The garden is looking really beautiful just now, with flowers opening up everywhere. Well worth a look. Also great for me, as I can keep track of which ones are open and notice how quickly they close up/ die off.

Inside the glasshouses.

Love this plant. Reminds me or a larger version of the dandelion when seeding.

Fantastic looking lily pads, unfortunately the flowers disappeared when I came back to photograph them

Water Lettuce flowering just now - bright, unmissable flowers.

Yellow tear drop on the top petals

Plant on the left's nickname; cigar plant.

Also, can't get enough of the bird of paradise flowers. More popping up after first two I saw.

Thought I'd take some wide angles to show off the glasshouses.

Contrast between the flowers in bloom, and when dead.

Think this is 'old mans cactus'.

In my last post I had photos of the amazing flowers which sprouted out from the Echinopsis Eyriesii cacti. The following week I discovered a bunch of the flowers wilted and pierced by the spikes.