05.27
Exhibition: "other gardens"
Added by Sam
Creating a mediated ‘garden tour’ of two botanically extraordinary but culturally invisible landscapes, this project explores the conditions that make an aesthetic experience specific to gardens possible.
Erin Despard and Oliver Kelhammer
curated by Monika Kin Gagnon
Exhibition Date: June 1, 2010, 6PM-9PM
Location: CJC building, Loyola Campus, Concordia University
7141 Sherbrooke St. West, Montreal, Quebec
other gardens invites participants to join a cross-country tour of two extraordinary but otherwise overlooked gardens. Located in dramatically different surroundings at opposite ends of the country—one in Montreal, the other on Cortes Island, BC— both gardens emerge from what might be considered an obscure design tradition, characterized here as ‘ruderal’ (i.e. emerging from ruins).
Conceived on the occasion of the launch of Public: Gardens, this project was created in collaboration with Concordia University’s Mobile Media Gallery who are exploring the creative possibilities of Bluetooth technology. Artist-contributor, Oliver Kellhammer—whose original Concrete Island (2006) provides context and precedent for many of the ideas explored here—and issue co-editor, Erin Despard have combined their shared fascination for botany in waste places to create this inventive media tour of other gardens. In addition to the installation for the launch of Public: Gardens, this project proposes two alternative formats for taking the Montreal portion of the tour—online via an interactive map, and in person.