Grass Work

Series

Wall hung and alive, the Grass Works are constructed from specially selected and prepared turf, groomed for each artwork through cycles of seeding, rolling, trimming, watering, deprivation of and exposure to light. Densely hand-stitched to canvas and board supports, the swathe of earth becomes the sculptural clay, painterly substrate and ground, and stage for slow-performance art. In full flourish, the ubiquitous grass is a mass multiple Duchampian-like readymade. In constant reproduction and endless cycles of growth and dormancy, it is a 'beingmade' – a permanent art object that remains in flux via internal operating systems and performative materials, a self-contained artwork in permanent progress.

The object demands attention, carving a direct relationship with its audience, with its presentation and wellbeing closely tied to curator or collector levels of commitment to its care. In this sense, the Grass Work elevates the oft-ignored landscape into the inner sphere. People find it hard to resist reaching out to touch while curators install signs saying 'keep off the grass'. As geometric abstraction, a field typically experienced as cool and distant, the Grass Work offers an organic abstraction – tactile, unruly, needy, warm and wet.