Gestural Garden

Abstract

Installation Project

GESTURAL GARDEN

In the Zen philosophy, Suiseki stones are a symbol of contemplation and a way of representing the universe on a smaller scale. The stones usually suggest the appearance of landscapes and are often shown inside monks’ temples or in gardens. According to Zen monks, all finite matter speaks of infinity and all animate and inanimate matter proceeds from the same source. In this way Suiseki stones are a portal where monumental forces and human intimacy intersect.

The Gestural Garden installation reflects on universal gestures related to material handling. Instinctive movements and patterns such as subtracting, adding, stacking, cutting, fracturing, flaking, drilling, collecting, finding, wearing, possessing, observing etc., are seen as ways of occupying space. The landscape is collectively deconstructed, dissected in the search for meaning; it is subject and object, gaining weight and lightness in processual and relational flows of materials. In the end, it is a matter of impact and rebound, the images meditate on us and we inhabit the images.

In a non-linear time, contemporary materials live amongst old, already traditional materials, natural amongst man-made and materials that have already been handled amongst those that have just been found. They seem like polarized values, as instinctive as any other gesture.