Friday 5 December 2008

 

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Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson suggests


Making sense

Wednesday, 16th July 2008

If your ears go back, like a frightened horse, at the word ‘conceptualism’ when applied to modern art, you may not be very pleased to know that this is a hot topic in landscape design at the moment.

But, stay, have we not been here before? What is the early 18th-century English landscape garden, at its most refined, than the expression in land form of an idea, in that case the longing to inhabit a classical Arcadia, complete with temples and pavilions, and Elysian (sheep-grazed) fields.

So, although we private gardeners will probably always remain attached to our 19th-century style of decorative horticulture, which warms our hearts and breaks our backs, there really is nothing to be frightened of in this conceptualist stuff. And, especially if we live in cities and have gardens limited in size, we should at the least allow the ideas of Schwartz, Lutsko, Michael van Valkenburgh, Paul Cooper et al. to seep into our consciousness, and accept that there might just be intriguing possibilities for us as well.

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