04/03/13 "Garden Roof'

This long term project entitled The British Isles Project began in October 2008. A wide ranging collection of Installations, drawings and sculptures are inspired by environmental and geo-political considerations of these islands we call home." The garden roof " is the longest running of these and remains a work in progress.The British Isles have been re-created as a low relief sculpture in the Artist's back garden in Cricklewood. The installation uses hand cut reclaimed roof tiles and measures about 400 x 500 x 12cm. The work contemplates what defines home - a roof over your head, but a country at your feet. The simple geography of our islands portrayed in relief as a permanent but ever changing installation; it is subject to the elements and at the mercy of the forces of nature year in and year out .The islands require a continual and concerted effort to maintain. They are subject to continual decline and decay since they are exposed to the elements in the dimension of time known as night and day. In the Summer the grass grows continually and the roots eat into the land mass. The trees on the edge of the garden send up suckers which crack the foundations of the bedrock from beneath. In Winter the ice and the snow seep into crevices and separate and wash away the topsoil of the crust. In June the cherries fall and pigeons descend to gorge and trample. Cutting the lawn around the sculpture( with scissors) takes several days and the artist takes a deep breath and protects her hands from blisters with sticking plasters. The earthworms continually excavate the soil from beneath the installation and consequently the whole structure is slowly sinking below sea level. In a Proust-ian sense the artist is simply obliged to work in her own back garden. For two years at the beginning she could do nothing else. The project was almost completely neglected between 2012-2014. "Garden Roof" is ever changing and it's story is being recorded and photographed intermittently with a time-lapse camera. See The British Isles Project....more