Vertical Grass Art

"QUANTUM SHOT" #205

Farewell, horizontal!

British artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey are creating transient, green masterpieces, by making grass grow on vertical surfaces. They've been doing it since 1990, and this site shows a few examples of their work.

First they seeded the wall of a rustic cabin on a hilltop medieval village in Northern Italy: The Other Side project. After figuring out how to grow grass vertically up the walls of a room, then moved on the walls of a cathedral - their next project was Dilston Grove church in London.

Then they set out to grow the complete exterior structure of a mausoleum in the Grand City Cemetery, in Riga, Latvia.
"The grass withers, and the flowers fade... And so it is with people." - Isaiah 40:7.

Grass-"enlivened" theater in Zurich, Switzerland:

(images credit: artsadmin.co.uk)

Tiger Skin (the living grass skin was stretched taut and suspended) and Tiger Grass Coat ("grown" for the Lynx Anti-Fur campaign):

The "Floating Field" in Akerby Sculpture Park, Sweden:

The transient nature of our existence became the defining element in their work, as their masterpieces do not last long without active intervention. "Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die..." (Psalms) Their "installations" don't need to be mowed; the grass will wither and dry off in 6 weeks.

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National Theater's Lyttelton flytower, London

Remember the "Black Square" by Kazimir Malevich?
National Theater's Lyttelton flytower ("flytower" is a part of a theatre above the stage), which is the artists' largest exterior work to date, is the embodiment of Malevich idea in architecture, only it's green and alive (though for a limited time). 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 only clouds and passing airplanes seem to "graze".

(images credit: Simon, UK)

(image credit: newsfeed.kosmograd.com)

(image credit: nt-online.org)

760 sq.meters covered by grass, 30-meters high. 22 people from Artsadmin seeding grass on 10 levels, using some 2 billion seeds:

(image credit: ashdendirectory.org.uk)

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Photosynthetic "photograph" on grass

"Sunbathers, 2000":

(image credit: Genomicart/Paradise Now)

Grass can also record and "display" complex photographic images in yellow-green shades, instead of black-and-white. The imagery produced will be temporary and transient, as the impact of extraneous light inevitably corrupts the picture. However, new genetic research (led by the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in Wales) has produced grass that keeps specific colors even under stress. The scientists have 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." To make a durable grass painting, one would need to grow photographic canvases and then dry them. (the exact technique is described here)

"Testament":

"Taking the intimacy of the portrait and magnifying it to a monumental scale, "Testament" bears witness to the passing of time."

"Mother & Child" (4 x 6-ft)

©Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey/Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1998

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Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey are not the only ones playing with grass:

Musée du quai Branly, in Paris, also features a kind of a vertical plant/grass installation: