TEND BOOK [Signed Limited Edition]

TEND BOOK [Signed Limited Edition]
£10.50 [incl p&p] Details are on our website [see the link opposite] for information on the book and how to purchase a copy.
TEND is an ongoing project that originated as a year-long research residency; as it continues we will be condensing ideas, exploring further locations and processes of collaboration. We are also currently developing a publication.
Trewidden Garden is an important example of the links between industrial expansion and horticultural research witnessed in the South West of England throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.
TEND references both the tending of plants and the nurturing of an idea over a sustained period of time. The aim of the residency was to develop a specific understanding of the garden in relation to broader geographical, cultural and ecological thinking through a sustained period of residence. We have witnessed the porosity of its borders and encouraged the role of emergence and open encounters in the realisation of ideas. During a process of exploratory micro-projects, gardening and exchanges between visitors and staff we are also unraveling the contemporary role of the garden within the context of its industrial and horticultural heritage. Over the course of the residency the two sheds, that we sited in the garden, evolved to become studio, archival space and artwork. TEND has developed as a conversation between ourselves where collected works are situated in relation to each other to form new perspectives.
TEND has been supported by Arts Council England – SW, Trewidden Garden and the Bolitho Estate.



NEWS - Winter 08/ Spring 09

The old stable yard adjacent to the gardens have been renovated over the past 6 months and will soon be occupied by a diverse range of artists from the region. The 15 studios will make a welcome contribution to the arts infrastructure in West Penwith and should be a wonderful place to work. We have taken up Studio 2 as a collaborative work space.

We are continuing to develop work within the TEND project and will be showing as part of the 2009 Open Studios.

RANE [Research in Art Nature and Environment] based at University College Falmouth are funding a small publication about TEND which we will be distributing regionally and nationally. We are especially keen to develop links with Green Tourism where we might generate new perspectives on the landscape for the visitor and build new relationships with regional business and organisations. Our publication will be part of this enterprise.

Some images from the ALIAS funded Open Day held in 2008

Some images from the ALIAS funded Open Day held in 2008
Looking out from the shed at the poly-tunnels.

Cinema Shed

Cinema Shed
See extract from the film below.

A Geographical and Social History of Plants.

A Geographical and Social History of Plants.

Contributors to the day.

Contributors to the day.
SOME OF OUR RECENT WORK

Sketchbook Drawings

Sketchbook Drawings

TRACES

TRACES

WINDBREAK SERIES

WINDBREAK SERIES

NORTH WALK SERIES AND JELLY PALM

NORTH WALK SERIES AND JELLY PALM

GARDEN ESCAPES SERIES

GARDEN ESCAPES SERIES

A PERFECT BLUE BUILDING PROJECT

A PERFECT BLUE BUILDING PROJECT
Carved stone facsimiles of Rhododendron Ponticum

Floating the Lilies

Floating the Lilies
with poetry by Andrew Thatcher

Friday 16 November 2007

Autumn Update



CROSSING SPACES


The 30th of September saw Trewidden closed to the public for the winter season, we have had many conversations with people who came from down the road or from across the other side of the world; a rich addition to our experience that has informed our understanding of the role of the garden in people's daily activities. That there are less people means our own sense of the garden alters, how we might utilise the sheds and how we engage with the spaces of the garden is open to new agendas.
The foliage is dissipating to reveal the edges; the garden is not isolated, it is connected. The traffic crossing its borders is less to do with human visitors and more to do with the narratives posited by the exposed tracks of animals, the visual splendour of some exotics recedes and common indigenous flora presents itself. The leaf cover of the deciduous trees and shrubs lies scattered on the ground and the beautiful tangled structure of the branches frame lines of site through the garden and out beyond its borders. The sense that the borders of the garden are being crossed by visible and invisible agents adds another layer to its dynamics; a symbiotic connection to the surrounding historical, geographical and ecological landscapes gives Trewidden its distinct and delicate flavour.
Trewidden is an extraordinary place, requiring much consideration in order to maintain its uniquely defined yet porous presence. To become embedded within such a place, to develop a relationship with the people connected to the garden is critical to the realisation of meaningful encounters with the work we produce.

Jane is currently working in the windbreak area on the western edge of the garden, carrying out a series of drawings and developing a photographic record of the changes occurring there. This distinctive and wild area of the garden is based on a functional use of pine trees to limit the effect of westerly winds on the rest of the large and ancient tree specimens. It is a borderland space that holds a particular sense of how the garden relates to the surrounding topography and agricultural practices.
David is recording the working aspect of the garden and developing ideas with Laurie Oakes, who has a small apiary at Trewidden, looking at the pollen species collected by his bees as a mapping mechanism - A layered, textual understanding of the landscape in relation to plants [wild and cultivated], humans and non-humans.
We are carrying out a series of sound recordings taken during walks within and around the perimeter of the garden and continuing to experiment with temporary sculptural interventions. Currently a heavy schedule of maintenance work is underway with a focus on the removal of much of the Rhododendron Ponticum, a principle carrier of Phytophthora, a disease which can affect certain varieties of trees and obviously of great concern in a garden such as Trewidden with all its wonderful specimens. The Rhododendron wood is required to be destroyed on site and no material from the garden can be removed without being checked for the pathogen. The removal of this invasive species is providing the opportunity to reconsider new planting schemes in the cleared areas, to provide structural stability and visual impact in relation to the other flora. It is hoped that a participatory project may emerge to make charcoal from the cleared Rhododendron wood, a positive outcome from a serious and threatening aspect of globalised biodiversity.