RESTRICTED VIEW - SUMMER
This work taps into the fantasy of the secret garden, a romantic escape from reality. Imagery of a rough and unkempt natural world taken from around the periphery of the urban park where weeds and vermin are allowed to flourish becomes a conduit to another world where everything is perfect. The miniature world seen through the larger image represents the desire for a perfect nature; something we struggle to attain in real life but have more hope of escaping to in our imagination.
Reference is made to a blinkered approach to nature within the urban environment. This is reinforced by the distorted experience provided by the municipal park whose formality is driven by a notion that harmony in nature comes from order and control.
The work contrasts untended urban areas where the natural and manmade elements are considered undesirable with a fantasy nature made from clichéd ideals.
195 cm x 126 cm x 50 cm
Screen print on cotton, digital print on cotton and synthetic fabrics, mixed media