the show
On Wednesday for the opening of the group show there were plenty.
It happens when you have group shows.
If each brings along ten friends/family you have an instant crowd.
This one was even more so, as many of the arrtist involved have a vast network of friends, being active in many circles at various levels.
Lots of friends came to the opening..
For the show you made an altar, elevating the dirt at eyes level, the viewer below the plants.
A planter was filled with sterile potting mix and left in the garden for 4 months, allowing environmental seeds to colonize it.
A cabinet got filled with dirt from the garden itself and left to develop for 3 months, the species sprouting are the one present in the soil already.
A Chinese Celtis bonsai was the third item presented on the high table.
Under the structure is a back screen projection on the talk you gave at UTS late last year.
Plenty of positive feedback gave you an insight into how people read your argument through a gallery display, lots were impressed by the level of argumentation expressed through the talk.
uhmm..
You’re still not sure galleries and artworld in general is any effective communication platform.
Weed gathering: ethnobotanical practices in a Cosmopolitan Society:
March 4th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
i like the sound of these “controlled experiments”. so, what grew?
what was the bonsai for?
March 25th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I went pass this a few weeks ago . I loved it. Congrats… I wish I had more time to contact you and chat…
Will have some more blog activity very soon..
March 31st, 2008 at 2:28 pm
yes, sorry it took so long to answer you both.
re. sam, yes, let’s talk, do something together, got ideas?
re.lucas,
-in the cabinet filled with dirt from my garden grew what was already in the soil, by the time of the show i could only identify a few sproutings of Parietaria Judaica, Ashma weed.
-the planter was filled with sterile soil and left to the environment 4 three months. i could positevely recognize only Bidens pilosa, cobblers pegs.
-the bonsai starter was Celtis sinensis, chineese celtis,a declared noxious weed in sydney.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
The selection committee praised the quality of the whole show and described Mr Bonetto’s winning entry as, ‘a visual synopsis of a longstanding investigation of non-indigenous plants within Australia’.
“Bonetto’s work is a barometer of our times, exploring nature, fragility, sustainability and how we integrate ourselves in the natural environment. The work is particularly apt at this point of time with what is going on ecologically, economically and politically,” the committee noted…
Congratulations! I hope you enjoy the Citadel of Art.