vertical garden and set design

                                         article link www.theage.com.au/national/blanc-canvas-20080717-3gy2.html
About 2 weeks ago I was asked to work on the vertical garden with french botanist Patrick Blanc, myself and 7 other gardeners planted 50 square metres of gorgeous plants into a wall of a shopping centre, which will be set up permanently!

EAT THE CITY

“The Romans, upon conquering a city, would plant seeds in the cracks of its walls and structures, so that eventually the plants would pull the buildings apart and destroy what was left of the city.” - Anonymous

 Eat the City is an exercise in small scale guerilla gardening that explores notions of apocalypse, revolution, coexistence with other species and transformation. 
Inspired by David Attenborough’s ‘Private Life of Plants’, Eat the City explores the invasive, threatening and cunning nature of plants and their cohorts, in an effort to challenge existing attitudes of their inert and benevolent relationship to humans. The installation aims to stimulate the viewer to re-imagine the urban environment transformed by plants in ridiculous, beautiful and sometimes violent ways. Coupled with photographs of existing guerilla gardens and portraits of revolutionary gardeners, Eat the City suggests possible incursions of the domestic suburban garden on the CBD and its inhabitants. 

Design for
'Under Construction' ArtsHouse 2008

A production facilitated by CMYI and directed by Gorkem Acaroglu, Under Construction was producedby a group of young Sudanese refugee actors. The show evolved from their imaginings for their children in Australia 30years from now.

Catastrophe Practice @ Carlton Courthouse : 2005

Brilliant Silence @ Lamama : 2005

Digging for fire : Stories from the Ground Production 2007

Ice sculpture and Illustrations

Ice Hotel Sweden, Sculpture commission 'Ice Clock' with Raku Pitt 2006

In 2006 myself and fellow artist Raku Pitt submitted a design for a hotel suite at the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi, a small town above the arctic circle in Sweden. Our design was selected, and we were flown over to build the interior of a giant clock with chainsaws, incredibly sharp Japanese carving blades, hot water and other implements. When we arrived it was mid-winter - the sun never rose above the horizon, and the temperature got down to - 40 degrees celsius. We stayed in an caravan, and every night the Northern lights mesmerised us with their snaking, pulsating forms in the sky. Construction began with a couple of 6 tonne blocks of ice and then some smaller pieces, which we carted around on sleds, and then carved, chopped, sliced and melted into shape. The shell of the snow room had been built earlier using a series of molds and formwork. Ice is the most beautiful material to carve, it has no grain and with the right tool feels like butter. Inside a block you will often find hairline cracks which can cause an entire block to shatter if you hit them the wrong way, especially if the outside air temp is particularly low.The lighting in the finished piece is a powerful rope LED used in underwater oil exploration off the coast of Norway. When we both caught colds, the cure was to cook ourselves in a sauna, then dive into the snow outside. It worked.

                                              'shed dreaming' ink on paper, 2011

                    'Taking words' pencil on paper, published in 'Tango : Love and Sedition'  2007

                                    'girl, mountain, egg' ink on paper , 2006

illustration for 'The Squirrel and the Great Tree' , pencil and ink on board, 2004

Babes In Blogland

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