‘Swiss Cheese’, 2005
Painted wood, customised found object
2.5m x 2.5m x 3.5m
V&A Pirelli Garden
Commissioned by Up & Co
The Other Flower Show
Various artists
Victoria & Albert Museum, South Kensington, London
May – July 2004
The V&A's garden was transformed by ten garden shed installations by contemporary artists. Providing an artistic alternative to the Chelsea Flower Show and taking place in the Year of Gardening 2004, The Other Flower Show took art out of the gallery and flowers out of the greenhouse!
It featured installations by Vince Clarke & Martyn Ware, Tord Boontje, Andreas Oehlert, Nilu Izadi, Sarah Staton, Chris Taylor & Craig Wood, Tracey Emin, Graham Fagen, Fat and Heather Barnett.
There is something quintessentially English about a garden shed that implies so much more than a simple garden storage solution; shelter at a rainy garden party, a workshop for an amateur enthusiast, a place of solace, retreat or perhaps something more untoward. As the premise for this exhibition, the garden shed functioned as a uniform "container" for each installation. How they responded to the structure and its inherent implications was for the individual artist to decide.
Each artist was invited to transform a garden shed to create bespoke installations, offering a creative and conceptual alternative to the traditional flower and garden show. From the sublime, to the scientific, the subversively humorous to the multifaceted and conceptual, each installation offers a different experience. Some were interactive, while others offered a glimpse from the door or window, into an entirely different world.
The Other Flower Show was commissioned by UP Projects in partnership with the Victoria & Albert Museum and supported by Arts Council England, London; Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.