lawnmower
Landschaft, Gallery Roentgenwerke, Tokyo, 2006.
Making Nature, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, Denmark, 2002.
Making Nature, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, Germany, 2002.
2006/DVD (approx.30min), monitor, DVD player, lawn, soil, etc./ 157.5x176.5x36.5cm
"If one enters a monastery, one prays every morning. One also fetches a bucket of water every morning and takes care of the garden. Not that the monk wishes to be a gardener. Gardening belongs to his duties as a monk: making something look nice everyday, caring for something everyday. It's not about gardening, gardening is only the method." (Yoko Ono)
In this sense, I consider my artistic work as a practise, as a process, which is ongoing. Everyday, I go to work at my studio, and everyday, I fill a sprayer to spray and water my mini-lawns. These plant pots serve no other purpose other than the attempt to bring nature and artificiality as close together as possible. The nature of the lawn (as fast growing as possible), is perfectly speeded up, by the artificial act of cutting the various grasses of certain lengths in a symbiosis of artificiality in nature (regular cutting encourages growth) with the natural act of artificiality (the lawn has hardly reached a certain length, than it is trimmed back to its optimal growing level). One could also speak of a coincidence between nature and artificiality. Everyday I care for my mini lawns, by way of watering them, putting them in the sun, rotating, fertilizing and cutting them at the correct time. These lawns will never be stepped upon, no-one will ever roll on them. This apparent completely useless lawn cultivation, draws attention to progression, due to its apparent pointlessness, therefore, to the authenticity of this act.
To put this progression as a method in studying lawns into a generally valid artistic context, this work in progress is elucidated in video films showing people mowing grass. The sound of the lawnmower is of the utmost importance in these films, it strongly emphasizes the dialectic of artificiality in nature, by the natural act of the artificial.
LAWNMOWER-VIDEO FILMS:
(1) Nancy's Garden, Newmilns, Scotland, 04.07.99, 6'56''
(2) Danube Park, Vienna, 16.07.99, 5'12''.
(3) Gloriette, Schönbrunn Park, Vienna, 19.08.99, 7'25''
(4) Schottenring, Vienna, 25.08.99, 3'53''
(5) Orangerie, Schönbrunnpark, Vienna, 09.09.99, 5'56''
(6) Rosarium, Schönbrunn Park, Vienna, 09.09.99, 4'28''
