Joining in the debate

Festival Gardens:  What’s the Point? Tuesday 5^th June, 7pm –

A debate hosted by Festival Director Tim Richardson with Marco Antonini (Land I) – veterans of conceptual garden designs having shown at Metis, Westonbirt & Chaumont; Julia Barton – Sculptor and Westonbirt show garden designer, installations include Chelsea Fringe and Holker Hall; Deborah Nagan (uncommon) – designer of the Garden of Disorientation and also of conceptual gardens in Luxembourg and Canada; Tony Heywood (Heywood & Condie) – designer of a garden at Westonbirt and this year at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Tickets  are free but RSVP to Deborah@uncommonland.co.uk

Transplanting update

Polymorphus mutabils 'Mistral' is now bedding-in well at the Garden of Disorientation, at 61 Charterhouse St EC1, opposite Smithfield Market, surrounded by Mentha  spitica.

Heavy Plant Crossing will be on exhibition here until the 5th May after which it will return to the studio for further modifications  and development with further trials ready for its next quest.

Garden of Disorientation Open from 11am-6pm daily; late opening til 10pm on the 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 30, 31 May and 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9 June

Transplanting to the City - 26th May

Heavy Plant Crossing will be transplanted on Saturday 26th May to the Garden of Disorientation at 1pm. Reconstruction will begin from 1.30pm, help is needed as it is a very 'Heavy Plant'!



You are welcome to help follow the flat pack instructions, check the measurements, bolt together, check the levels, attach flower heads and stand back and appraise.

The Garden of Disorientation  is a fragrant  internal pop up garden venue  hosting many artists work and events over the Chelsea Fringe Festival. The space  has been designed by Deborah Nagan of  Uncommonland

A list of the events happening  here and work being shown is available at the Chelsea Fringe website.

The first screening of the Heavy Plant Crossing short digital 'buddy film', will play from 6.15pm -7.15pm on a loop on Saturday 26th May..

The film will be played daily until the 9th June along with landscape images of Allan-Pollock Morris projected onto the wall of Smithfield. 


Venue is open 11am-9pm

Reactions on the Streets

Smiles & amusement - exclaiming to friends over the phone what they were seeing

Cordial banter - often beginning with:

'What is it?'

'Does it generate electricity?'

'Is it art?'

'Its crazy....I love it?'

'What drugs are you on?'

Questions which offered fantastic starting points to  discuss the event, the plants construction, the quest to win Best in Show at RHS Chelsea, to discuss reclaiming and recycling  objects.

Interaction:

Children seemed naturally drawn to the plant encouraged to explore the flower heads, they were keen to touch the plant soon discovering which they could spin, move and carry along side us when trundling along.

They loved working out what the objects making the flower heads had been and what I could possibly make next.

Captured stills - Sunday 20th May

The images below are from the video footage taken over the first two days of the journey. A short 'buddy film' is being edited, and will be screened daily at the Garden of Disorientation

venue from  the evening of Saturday 26th to the 9th June. 

Be sure to ask to see it if its not on!

Motoring by Imperial College

Naming frenzy

Humorous names proposed

Passing the Science Museum   

Having a chat in the Chelsea Physic Garden

Just in time

We made it ! Crossing the threshold of the hallowed RHS Chelsea Flower Show just before the gates closed at 2.20pm  for the judging... How fantastic more to follow! 

 













Off now to propagate the plant 'Mistral' with the members of the Worlds End Community Kitchen Garden tonight and children of Ashburnham Primary School, tomorrow.

We have a name!

The application form is set for completion today ready for our entry in the  the RHS Chelsea Flower Show today. Thank you to  everyone who sent texts,and e mails with ideas for naming the plant. The name selected 'Mistral' was put forward outside of the Natural History Museum yesterday  by William White ( we will be in contact to get your address to send the prize in the next few days). The name  inspired by the  breeze  picked up along Exhibition Road and powered the flower heads assembled from various fans   Mistral '

Thanks to everyone for the fabulous names a few of which are below... 

Explorer           Sarah

Grace              GM

Wanderer           John

Tumbleweed         Jan

Florian            Stephanie

Stranger           Steven

Morrissey          Mary

Sojourner Truth.   Susanne

Changeling         lionpops

Eye-bright         Claudia

Poly               MD

Black Night        Caroline

Dizzy              CB

'Pipe Dream'       LS

Barton’s Bloomers   AM

more to follow!

Trundling along nicely

A cloudy cool start at Marlborough Gate this morning, to bemused tourists heading into Hyde Park. After hailing my invitation to join in the construction of a weird and wonderful plant two Tazmanian women slowly joined in sorting, holding poles, reading my construction notes. After half an hour we were able to test out the plants base an wheeling ability.After a few more tweaks with the spanner an allen-key we set too adding stems,branches and then the all important flower heads. At which time we began to attract much more attention and we felt ready for setting forth to the Serpentine Gallery, drawing passers by into the story of our quest to reach the Chelsea Flower Show in time to win 'Best plant in Show' tomorrow!

On our way South.....

All packed into a few bags , our journey began cold and wet in the Northumberland hills.

As we headed down the A1 we began to cross the climatic zones, which where marked by increasing numbers of  trees in leaf and flower.  By the time we reached  Watford the May blossom and cherry trees began to brighten the horizon of grey cloud .





Stopping for breaks I glimpsed the delightful stand of Candelabra Primulas in a fabulous garden just as the sun came out . There's an apt great name... still hunting for the right name . Hoping that some more will appear on the blog by the morning .

On reaching London tonight the temperature was wonderfully much increased and the first road name I noticed was 'Flower Mews' very apt and heartening for the beginning of  our quest tomorrow. See you at Hyde Park 10 am sharp!

All set to roll

The plant is now bagged up and ready to begin its journey to London from the North East. Hoping I have remembered all its stems, leaves and flower heads, not to mention tools and of course the all important RHS CFS application form. 

 

Looking forward to arriving at Hyde Park at 10am, tomorrow morning to begin constructing the plant near to Marlborough Gate. See you there !

Out for an evening stroll in between the showers

After a long day in the studio checking over and reconfiguring the plants flower heads, I decided to chance the showers and head up the hill for our third road test.

 

















My thinking being that if the plant and I can make it up such a steep hill on a rough single track road, we will be fine along the smooth and relatively flat footpaths of the capital.

The road test went well, the plant towing smoothly and keeping stable even when having to pull over into the grass verge to let bemused cars and tractors pass by. Phew!

Rotating Flowerheads - winning feature ?

A recent development in the plants evolution has been the configuring of flower heads that rotate in the wind, inspired by fans from car radiators and office fans.To do this I have devised a simple loose shaft and split pin system to connect the reclaimed fan elements to the plant stems. 

After a walk with the plant in a stiff breeze where the larger bi-coloured flower head hurtled round behind me, I am confident this dynamic cultural detail will impress the judges.

 

















Who knows if a breeze picks up at Chelsea next week the rotating flower heads could clinch the ‘Plant of the Year' trophy!

North Tyne Valley artist shows 'plant' at Chelsea Flower Show - Environment - News

North Tyne Valley artist shows 'plant' at Chelsea Flower Show - Environment - News

The Heavy Plant Crossing preparations have not gone unnoticed . Word has reached  Newcastle, specifically the Environment correspondent of The Journal, Tony Henderson who has put the word out for their readers to come up with suggestions to name the Plant before it reaches Chelsea. The winner will  receive the first cut flower stem from the plant along with a very fine box of chocolates. To enter leave your suggestion on leave your suggestion on the competition page http://heavyplantcrossing2012.blogspot.co.uk/p/competition.html

Last search - on the streets

With a need for last minute additions to the recycling piles I decided to trek west to Manchester to visit a friend and check out unwanted and abandoned objects of the city. 

A Bank holiday is a good day to search skips which have been filling up over the weekend with discarded shower fixings, outgrown toy table legs and an old 45 record, perfect.

All finds are now sorted and noted in the studio,ready for
selection and assembling.

Selection decisions

With only two weeks to go before I will be  entering the plant in the RHS Chelsea 2012 Plant of the Year, I am making crucial final decisions as to which elements of the plant work best to gain those all important points. 


The black poly pipe stem structure definitely supports the multi flower head form well and allows for the plant to be reconfigured easily as it hybridizes away.


The intense shiny black stems and the grid leaves, make a bold dramatic effect, to set off the flowers, unusual and rare in the botanical world. 





The only other plant I know of coming close to this colour is Ophiopogon Nigrescens





 

Tens of flower heads are being trialed - assembled from black plastic cogs,fans, with red electrical wire stamens.



Today's studio decisions will help me begin to classify the plant and fill in the all important CFS FORM 19, to enable me to enter Chelsea.

Project Event

A box will arrive in London with its maker and keeper. The keeper will open the box and construct a mechanical plant on wheels to travel through the streets and parks of Kensington and Chelsea. The keeper will constantly appraise and make impromptu stops to adjust the plant.

Hybridization performances will take place in parks, streets and in gardens at scheduled places and times. The keeper will re configure particular elements of the plant, changing its form each time.


The aim is to perfect the plant and reach the RHS show to win ‘Best Plant in Show’ category.

Notation

As all good plant finders, I am collating and recording the components I have collected, noting the date found, collected or purchased , the location they came from , their condition, any particular ideas re use etc..

Reclaimed materials from the 

House of Objects NE12

Reclaimed scaffolding poles and hangers N48

Donated unused poly pipes and fittings NE48

Origin of the Project

Taking the long view I can trace the origin of this project back to working in my Grans garden as a child, where I became fascinated by plants and flowers and her care for them, watering, taking cuttings, staking  and setting up wires for them to grow along. Most of all I remember how one  year I watched her dig a hole next to her Hydrangea plant into which she buried a handful of copper nails, her explanation bemused me at the time as she told me it was the nails that made the flowers turn blue.

Anything as crazy stays in your head and has to be worth investigating and now I find myself immersed in trying to understand the origins of different species of plants and the hybridization of them both natural and cultivated.

Selection - deconstruction

The vast array of donated and found materials have now been sifted through and interesting components with potential for the plant selected out and sorted out into piles and boxes of similar objects. Metal& plastic tubes, wheels, grommets, springs hoses, unidentifiable moldings etc

Objects where deconstructed to reclaim special elements such as the 1980’s spiral pram wheels, so suggestive of  the heads of sunflowers.

A hot air balloon inflation fan....

Putting Roots Down - base structure

Meantime I took a couple of scaffolding poles I had from a previous piece of work along with wheels and a handle I had purchased as part of a garden trolley and visited a colleague John Rutherford. We worked together for the day to fabricate the base structure from which the plant will grow. The wheels will eventually enable me to smoothly pull the plant on its journey to the Chelsea Flower Show.