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A Delicious Garden

A site-specific installation that contributes to contemporary redefinitions of craft through the use of digital techniques (laser-cutting) combined with hand processes (applying wood stains and shellac to plywood to give the illusion of oak). The piece is situated conceptually in contemporary discourses of landscape, power and imperialism through its repurposing of an 18th Century dress pattern onto the fabric of the building. Surface decoration is applied using icing sugar, referencing the history of Danson House built from a fortune derived from sugar plantations in the 18th Century. This confluence of wealth, power, and the conflicted histories of the site finds material expression in the installation providing a visual and tactile engagement with existing textual research on landscape and imperialism. It appropriates forms from a period of ‘high’ imperialism to consider how historical perspectives might inform current debates on the confluence of landscape, technology and power in the present period of ‘late’ capitalism. This material-based focus contributes an alternative research model and imaginative extension of existing critical debates through its emphasis on an affective engagement with the site and its histories via the use of ‘craft’ processes and materials. Contemporary artists working in this field include Yinka Shonibare, Grayson Perry, Linda Florence and Catherine Bertola. This research produced further artefacts exhibited at solo exhibitions: Waiting For the Perfect View, Touchstones, Manchester (Dec 2012 – March 2013) and Beach Fatigue, Carslaw St* Lukes, London (Oct-Nov 2013).

The project was a pilot initiated and funded by The Crafts Council exploring the presentation of contemporary craft in “contexts beyond the gallery” such as national historic settings. Working with objects from their permanent collection and commissioning new works for temporary exhibitions, this diversification seeks to develop new audiences through profiling contemporary practices alongside contributing to local economies through stimulating cultural tourism in heritage environments.