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.