cultivate 1997

context gallery, derry
curated by hugh mulholland

Cultivate is an installational body of work employing a series of elements specifically built to engage with the formal qualities of the Context Gallery. These elements are made of wood, covered in gesso and are designed to house the plant wandering sailor. These plants have been reared using artifical daylight bulbs. In the exhibition they are lit using these bulbs, and grow towards them as the show goes on.

This series of work aims at exploring social and architectural issues in a broad context, by pairing formal devises with organic elements. This combination alludes to cultivation and control. The pieces apper as formal structures initially, but the pristine gesso surface plays host to tiny photographs and postage stamp sized guilded areas.

There is a play on scale wheron the small images are seen on closer inspection of the work. These then operate as contextual windows into the issues the work aims to explore