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ROOT
materials 16 cubic metres of soil, wild plants, grass seed, footpath, sod, six mattresses,
twenty-two sinks, one television, one industrial hoover, fourteen chairs, microwave,
coffee maker, nescafe, a defunct bunk-bed with kid's graffiti, broken mirror, branches,
thirty-five sprouting logs, insects, hoses, buckets, standing water, four window frames,
eight tables, sewing machine, umbrella, door, intact kitchenette set, kettles, one cubic metre
of scrap electrical wiring, ten square metres of carpeting, trowel, handsaw, dresser, drawers,
hosiery, beercans, slight breeze, broom and dustpan, copper piping, plastic cups, glasses,
utensils and sheeting, etc.
dimensions 12 x 6 meters (variable)
exhibition date 2002
location Winchester, UK
The installation Root functioned
like a vacant lot which viewers were free to explore. A footpath
at the gallery entrance wound its way through the installation
and led out double-doors to the parking bay at the rear of the
gallery.
The work was created in place over a period of several months,
and by the time of its completion had become a mini-ecosystem
of growth and decomposition. The air was humid and warm in the
daytime from the high skylights, and a breeze passing through
the building's open doors ruffled the weeds.
The work pit the rectilinear geometry of man-made materials against
the fractal geometry of the organic. A tension between order and
disorder prevailed: the appearance of wilderness was the result
of careful construction.
As a sculptural work, Root used everyday
objects without any attempt to alter their character - mattresses,
sinks and all manner of found materials were used as is, in relationships
that would be totally familiar to any urban or suburban observer.
The total effect of this strict realism tipped over into a dreamlike
atmosphere.
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images: 1 2
 
above images view from inside the
installation, looking over the footpath to the main entrance detail
view of the footpath
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