Archive for the ‘Aesthetic’ Category

Planting and Weeding

May 25, 2010 by kate · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Aesthetic, Allotments, Artwork, Event, Planting, guerrilla gardening 
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Planting Performance (4) occurred on 13/05/2010. The weather conditions were warm and sunny. For several days prior to the Planting event, it had looked like it may rain, the previous evening dark storm clouds had gathered, but no rain fell. Temperatures were dipping down at night causing frost damage to some plants, but luckily not on the Allotment Plot.

The state of the Plot reports as follows; the broad beans had almost finished flowering, the dying flowers that have turned black, will form their bean pods over the next few weeks. The peas, now very much recovered from the cold winter, are flowering so the first pea pods will arrive soon. The garlic continues to grow as does the onion sets, although the garlic has always seemed to be growing far more rapidly than the onions. The over wintered spinach that was supposed to provide food through out the winter, is now going to seed and the leaves are still small.

The brassicas have been attacked and eaten by predators, possibly pigeons, leaving the skeletal frames of the seedlings. Will the brassicas recover or are they doomed to crop failure? Is this high or low drama on the Plot? What may seem comparatively insignificant in the scheme of the Plot, could in months to come, when the greens are most needed for nutritional requirements, mean that there is a substantial deficit in food production, producing a hungry gap that should not be there at that time. Covering the brassicas may assist in their recovery, but it may not, because the damage could be too great. The situation will be carefully monitored.

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Planted at the Plot on that day in honour of Guerrilla Gardeners everywhere was a sunflower seeding and sunflower seeds. Weeding then prevailed. Using a hoe and also by hand many weeds were removed from the plot. Weeding will be an on going activity on the Plot.

Is the viewer aware that this Allotment Plot is a live Art situation? It is an on going event that can be visited in Museum opening times. The Plot is growing its own aesthetic. The artist will not always be there, but the Allotment Plot is. Does this particular Plot differ from the two other vegetable plots in the garden and what makes it Art? Weeding 1

Weeding 2

Planting Performance at MERL

March 7, 2010 by kate · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Aesthetic, Allotments, Artwork, Performance, Planting 
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Planting Performance at MERL happened on 5 March 2010 11am-1pm. Weather conditions for the Planting were good; frost overnight, sun bright and warm, slight breeze, last rainfall a few days before, specifics for planting were appropriate.

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Grounds men had recently deposited a large pile of compost that was available for usage. The compost was derived from recycled green waste at the University. Some of the compost was shoveled into three wheelbarrow loads and delivered to the Allotment Plot, then shoveled out and spread with the use of an historic rake. The rake was purchased at a car boot sale four years ago and handed to the artist.

Perform Raking

Seed planting began including conversation. Artist as a subject is not a gardener, but Artist is performing planting and gardening. Artist is planting performance within the arena of MERL, the museum’s garden. The Allotment Plot is a performance area. Performance and growing is the artist’s medium, for the artist this is the same as painting or sculpture.  The artist’s intention is to encourage critical debate with persons that may come into direct or indirect contact with the artist. The aesthetic surrounds ethics and political motivation or material. The viewer may or may not wonder what other impulses are hidden behind the Allotment Plot. There is more within and behind the Plot.

Perform Writing

Organic vegetable seeds planted were as follows: 2 rows of Brussels Sprouts ‘Darkmar 21′, 1 row of Cauliflower ‘Snowball’, 2 rows of Parsnip ‘Halblange White’, 1 row of Carrots ‘Amsterdam Forcing’, 1 row of Kale ‘Pentland Brig’. Other organic herb and flower seeds were also planted; Dill, Coriander Santos, Flat Leaved Parsley, Borage, Nasturium, Pot Marigold ‘Calendula Officinalis’ and Cosmos ‘Cosmea’.

Perform Seed Planting

What seeds germinate and what will survive to grow to maturity is a hidden mystery, unpredictable from the start. Harvest is the intention. Weather acts as an agent. Wild life that is present in the garden can harvest at will unless blocked by human interference. Biodiversity acts out its role as assistant in promotion and deterrent in the organic state, with no need for chemical warfare.

Allotment Planting Performance

The Fixed-Up Greenhouse

March 2, 2010 by kate · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Aesthetic, Allotments, Artwork, Place, Studio 
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The seedlings were transported from the studio to a new growing location. The location or place being The Fixed-Up Greenhouse, which has become an extension of the studio, a working area for art practice and a home for the seedlings until they are ready to be planted out at the Allotment Plot at MERL

The studio location was also moved, further down the corridor to a different space. A blank white wall appeared in order to negotiate art practice. What is the relationship of art practice in the studio to seedlings growing as art practice in The Fixed-Up Greenhouse, the Allotment Plot at MERL and the research for art practice? Theory, fact and fiction may surround the groundwork. Seedlings in GreenhouseGreenhouse SeedlingsGreenhouse

Rhizome and the Plot

February 25, 2010 by kate · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Aesthetic, Allotments, Artwork, Growing 
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The Allotment Plot’s specificity is plant life growing at a Place which contains the Plot. The Place and its multiplicity is fold and refolded. The plant life’s roots and radicles are growing around the groundwork of the Plot. The Art Practice is wrapped with roots that radiate and shoot. All plant life being in its specificity not entirely rhizomatic.

Plot Febrauryallotment46Tiny Pepper PlantsTomato Growing

“A rhizome as subterranean stem is absolutely different from roots and radicles. Bulbs and tubers are rhizomes. Plants with roots or radicles may be rhizomorphic in other respects altogether: the question is whether plant life in its specificity is not entirely rhizomatic.” (Deleuze & Guattari – A Thousand Plateaus).

Seeds at the Studio Allotment

January 30, 2010 by kate · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Aesthetic, Allotments, Artwork, Growing, Studio 
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More seeds were planted at the studio allotment on the 27/01/2010.  The seeds were sourced from Tamar Organics. These seeds planted were as follows:

Aubergine Black Beauty x 15

Pepper Sweet Tamar x 15

Pepper (Hot) Ring of Fire x 12

Pepper (Hot) Early Jalapeno x 12

Pepper Seeds

Aubergine Seeds

The seeds that had germinated on 29/01/2010 were recorded as follows:

Tomato Zuckertraube = 10

Tomato Gardeners Delight = 5

Nasturium = 3

Pot Marigold = 11

Sweet Pea = 5

Cosmos = 6

Carnation = 3

If seeds are rooted too early, life support may fail due to weather intervention. This failure can happen in the internal designated growing space, in this case the studio, (or more commonly in a greenhouse or domestic interior area) and externally, when a plant is growing in the open air. Failure in the growing cycle can happen unexpectedly at any given time due to adverse weather conditions. The breakdown of the organic growing machine and catastrophic crop failure can fracture systems and cause devastation for species. It is not just a question of survival of the fittest but an attribute of unpredictability out of human control.

Studio Allotment

January 30, 2010 by kate · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Aesthetic, Allotments, Artwork, Growing, Studio 
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The Allotment in the studio is in its early stages. Within the first week that the seeds were planted, tiny seedlings started to emerge, somewhat prematurely. “January – March” was the suggested planting window on the seed packets, but if the plants develop too soon there is a danger that they will die and be lost, composting themselves back to the earth. Careful management and monitoring of the seedlings will need to take place. Although growing and germinating conditions are obviously good as a consequence of enough heat and light, life support may not be that easy. The seedlings will need re-potting fairly soon. The process of growing and food production begins rooted in the studio prior to the outdoor growing destination at the Allotment at MERL.

Seedlings

Allotment Aesthetics

January 21, 2010 by kate · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Aesthetic, Allotments, Artwork, Gardening, Political 
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After a week when the allotment plot at MERL was covered in snow, the vegetable plants are still surviving, but some are suffering frost and snow damage. It would seem frost burn is the condition, a few of the broadbeans are slightly effected, as is the garlic and the peas more so, but there are no outright casualties. The ‘Sprint’ garlic is growing (sprinting), much more quickly than the ‘Thermidrome’ garlic, which is only just appearing out of the soil. The onion sets growths are very slow. Can the aesthetic condition of a vegetable reflect the state of the world through political consensus? Or is the political to blind to see the aesthetic?allotment32Broadbeans Frost BurnPeas Frost Burn

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