Public spaces have a long and ongoing
history with its inhabitants and visitors; they throng through the city on a
daily basis. These public spaces must in return remain presentable all year
round in order to entice people back again and again. From hospitals,
universities, parks, tourist attractions and the city centre itself; all of
these spaces must present their grounds to the masses in the most alluring of
ways.
One method employed by planners to attract
people is the use of ‘greening’ in the modern city. Although the materials
deployed are organic (trees, bushes, fauna etc.), they become ‘man-made’ in the
sense that they are carefully pre-selected, engineered and shaped to adapt to
the urban landscape. The corresponding mise-en-scène
of nature in the city is not often dwelt upon by its residents. Furthermore, this
aspect of the city is rarely considered to be photogenic, or worthy of the
attention of the camera’s eye.
This work seeks to draw to light to an
overlooked aspect of the urban experience by presenting images of nature
constructed for the city. In drawing the viewer’s attention to some of the
phenomena that surround them in their day to day lives, it seeks to raise
several questions about our experience of the urban environment: Firstly, should
we view attempts to enhance the city through ‘greening’ as trite and
superficial, or do they point to an innate need to seek to improve and perfect
our built surroundings? Secondly, is it possible to consider these scattered
and marginal tufts of growth as beautiful? Thirdly, can these images evoke a
sense of our own pursuit of perfection and how we endlessly seek validation
through our own presented image? The work does not seek to adopt a fixed position
in response to these questions. It endeavours to create space for dialogue and
to invite the viewer to reflect on what we should hope for from our cities.
