Landscape Laboratory
In the Spring of 2010, I created a series of landscape interventions at the Blake Garden Landscape Laboratory in Kensington, California. These projects were in collaboration with fellow artists, Peter Suchecki and Lauri Twitchell of RedStartStudio. The artworks derived from spending time on the site and were not pre-determined prior to the day they were completed. Other self-imposed parameters include the sole use of natural materials from the property; allowing the inherent qualities of the materials to guide the direction of the artworks. Our interests were exploring the possibilities of the harvested materials and pushing the limits of their utility and form. To accomplish these goals, we used only traditional hand tools (such as broad axes) instead of power tools.
EQUISETUM FENCE
The first landscape intervention we created involved the invasive horsetail plant, Equisetum telmateia. It populated the northern creek area of the 10.6 acre property. After spending the morning collecting the plant, we incorporated the structure of a nearby, chainlink fence as the vertical support for weaving the stalks of Equisetum. This generated a nine foot tall, lush green wall in the landscape that eventually dried and withered in the days to follow.
BAMBOO VAULTING
For this project, we first harvested golden bamboo (Phyllostachys aurea) and piled our clippings. Attracted by the form of the shoots and leaves, we inserted them into clumps of mud pulled from the adjacent wetland. Distracted by an obtrusive parking structure in the Garden, we decided to alter its presence by attaching our bamboo and mud clumps to the surface. To compensate for the unreachable height of the structure we developed a method of launching the mud clumps by using a piece of timber bamboo and constructing a small basket tied together with wet strips of Acacia baileyana bark at the end of the pole. A cross between a pole vault and a catapult, our device provided an unexpected means of generating a large scale drawing using natural materials.
ACACIA CINCH
Acacia Cinch began with peeling strips of bark from recently harvested Acacia bailyana logs. This technique was assisted by the use of an Italian machete called the Pennato, a traditional tool used in Tuscan agriculture and forestry. We soaked the strips in the stream to soften them and make them more pliable for tieing together. Once tied, we had generated a 280 foot line of rope which we coiled around two ironwood trees on the ridge of the property. The leathery bark rope tightened as it dried, cinching the two trees together.