Art, Cities and Landscape exhibition
Amiens, Hortillonnages

2014

Originally inspired by a book describing a tree as ‘a tall scaffold on which to hang its, leaves, its flowers and its fruit’ You Give me Fever is a cubic lattice containing 62 identical cubes. The three dimensional geometry is drawn from a two-dimensional diamond pattern found in one of the leaded windows in Amiens Cathedral.

Conceived as a lightweight steel structure that has the capacity to form itself in the manner of a crystal, adding layers to fill the space, competing with other organisms and enveloping its surroundings in the manner of a vine.

The exhibition Art, Cities and Landscape is located in a very special area called the Hortillonnages, also known as the Floating Gardens of Amiens, it covers an area of 300 hectares divided up by 65 km of canals. There are numerous examples in the hortillonnages of neglected buildings being colonised, and eventually crushed by nature. With You Give Me Fever a viral architectural geometry is striking back at nature.

“The effect of the work’s stark white surface, and uncompromising linear geometry set against the lush green, provides the feeling of a superimposed drawing – when seen from afar. This sense of unreality pervaded, until countered by our experience of the structure up close, where a multitude of viewpoints triggered its powerful physical presence and complex spatial journey. Yet any impression is temporal, as the work is ever-changing through the seasons.”

3rd Dimension (PMSA) magazine

Coombe Trenchard

2015

A cubic lattice constructed around and supported, by the twin trunks of an Ash tree at the Sculptural15 exhibition with the William Bennington Gallery at Coombe Trenchard House in Devon, UK.
The arrangement of the cubes is dictated by the positions of the various branches, and the need for the structure to brace and balance itself within the tree. The white grid superimposes itself into the environment, both caging and framing the host tree, the tree and the structure work together, both physically and metaphorically. It is also about man imposing an order on nature and nature fighting back with its own order.

Burghley Gardens

2016

A three dimensional array of 19 cubes constructed in and around the trunk and branches of a large Ash tree. The arrangement of the cubes is dictated by the positions of the various branches and the need for the structure to brace and balance itself within the host tree. Like the Mistletoe commonly seen in the Burghley Gardens, the white ‘Fever’ grid is a parasite imposing itself upon its host, depending upon the tree for its elevated position and, like a bauble, drawing attention to the grand form and scale of the tree itself. The tree and the grid are contrasting structural systems, both following a set of rules to a conclusion.