THE SILVER GARDEN
2019
Childs lifejacket, resin, metallised chrome coating
72 x 28 x 31 cm
2019
Child’s lifejacket, resin, metallized chrome coating, headphones, mp3 player
72 x 60 x 31 cm
Pavona Frondifera
2020
Aluminium, rivets, lifejacket parts, resin, spray chrome
24 x 20 x 20 cm
Aplysina Fistularis
2020
Aluminium, rivets, lifejacket parts, resin, spray chrome
25 x 25 x 25 cm
Whistle and I’ll Come to You
2020
Aluminium, rivets, lifejacket parts, resin, spray chrome
30 x 26 x 18 cm
The Silver Garden installation is a sound work and sculpture. The sound element is a first-person narrative about a supernatural figure that appears on a ferry in the Greek islands and inhabits a crowd of sleeping tourists. By dissolving into a thick fog, the protagonist possesses their bodies and travels back in time. The work combines traditional horror tropes and art historical references with a satirical tale of hyper-consumerism and environmental possession.
The sound work, written and read by Richard Nik Evans, was made by recording cellist David Barbenel’s improvisations inspired by the story. The improvisations were cut into parts, looped to emulate the movement of waves, and set against a soundscape of samples and field recordings made on a ferry in the Greek Islands.
The child’s lifejacket was found on Dungeness beach in the UK in early 2018; it was frozen using a combination of varnish and resin and then industrially polychromed. The work was shown at Aetopolous Gallery in Athens, Greece, which gives the piece an eerie relationship to the immigration crisis in Europe and the hedonism of the tourist industry.