British artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey create transient green masterpieces,
by making live grass grow on vertical surfaces. They've been doing it since 1990, and
their site showcases
the surreal and sublime quality of their work. (Above is their 'Face to Face' Domaine
de Chamarande, France, 2012).
They started by seeding the walls of a rustic cabin of a hilltop medieval village
in Northern Italy. After figuring out how to grow grass vertically up the walls
of a room, they moved on to larger canvases.
Here's Some Of Their Awesome Green Works. Enjoy! :)
They decided to 'grassify' the walls of a cathedral - the Dilston Grove church in
London.
Next was the grass layer around the complete exterior structure of a mausoleum in the
Grand City Cemetery, in Riga, Latvia (top left image).
'The grass withers, and the flowers fade... And so it is with people.' - Isaiah 40:7.
Bottom left image shows the mastery of the 'beauty in decay': using the elements of
partly abandoned and destroyed interior space and merging it with the life-giving
splendour of growing grass. The incredible grass staircase on the right image above
is from their 'undertaking' project in Palais de Chaillot, Paris, France.
Theaterhaus Gessnerallee in Zurich, Switzerland, is the international contemporary
theater, the walls of which are now graced with the lush green growth, courtesy
of Ackroyd & Harvey
Here are the 'Tiger Skin' - the living grass skin was stretched taut and suspended - and the 'Tiger Grass Coat',
'grown' for the Lynx Anti-Fur campaign (left images). On the right is the 'Floating Field' in
Akerby Sculpture Park, Sweden.
Photosynthetic 'photographs' on grass - Grass can also record and 'display' complex
photographic images in various yellow-green shades, instead of the usual black-and-white.
The imagery produced will be certainly temporary, short-lived, as the impact of
extraneous light sources will inevitably affect the picture. However, the genetic
research (led by the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in Wales) has
recently produced grass that keeps specific colors even under stress. The scientists
have even identified a gene that degrades the green pigment chlorophyll, and they
were able 'to alter the grass's aging behaviour and even stop it altogether.'
Above are some examples, from left ro right: 'Sunbathers, 2000', 'Testament' and
'Presence' - all are great works by Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey.
National Theater's "FlyTower" in London - Ackroyd & Harvey's most ambitious public
artwork is perhaps the FlyTower at the National Theatre in London. 'FlyTower sees
the artists working directly on the exterior of one of London's landmarks,
transforming this iconic building into a living artwork of massive proportions'.
Sponsored by Bloomberg and produced by Artsadmin, this $100,000 'living' installation
has transformed the well-known London landmark into a vertical green marvel, on
which clouds and passing airplanes seem to 'graze' on a sunny afternoon.
760 sq. meters covered by grass, 30-meters high! A team of twenty-two people from
Artsadmin were seeding the grass on ten levels, using some 2 billion seeds.
Making use of boring grey surfaces and transforming them into green vertical gardens!
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SHANGRALA'S
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