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Sofa Sitters
Coral, Rich, Rowan and Malaika living it up on the Living SofaWhat do the sounds of melting ice, growing grass and buzzing flies have in common? They're all the internal workings of "Noah's Living Room," the collaborative artist-in-residence gallery exhibition co-curated by Xiaoqian and Liu Ding, Chinese artists at Dartington College of Arts.
Huge plastic flies (made from water bottles) flying by hitching lifts on a ceiling fan, a tiny grass hillside festooned with fairy-sized red living room furniture is piled in one corner, and the violets blooming on it are still vibrant. A living turf carpet is greening up the center of the room. A huge cylinder of ice is suspended by chains from the ceiling and is, drip by drip, displacing a field of sand smoothly laid out below it. A bookshelf-full collection of Chinese dynasty histories are slowly turning red as a pool of red ink seeps up their pages. And a Living Sofa, made from turf and sprinkled with edible flowers, plants and moss is inviting many humans onto its plush lap.
I am placing myself next to a ficus tree and inviting its way of moving into my form, giving myself over to the spiraling, woody, waxy-leafed experience of being a potted tree. Some people milling about pay close attention to me, others stand right next to me and ignore. Next I find myself collaborating with a cactus, blooming demure displays of white flowerlets amidst a sunburst-explosive village of spiking heads. The dance that comes up here is pokey, devilish, sweet and surprising.
Richard is heading off down the hill with a sack on his shoulder. An eager audience of gallery-goers and a film crew trips along behind him as he keeps his single-pointed focus and climbs to the top of an ash tree outside the Barn at Dartington. No nonsense in this performance (I called upon my oratory skills just to convince him to call it a performance), he lashes his homemade birdhouse to the tree with some garden twine. This is the alternative to nailing it into the tree-- which would be a big ouch for the tree mama!
Not this breeding season, but next, there will be a living room for birds, established by the makers of Noah's Living Room, in the spirit of an ark that extends to more species than just humans.
Noah's Living Room was exhibited May 5, 2006, and the pieces above were, in order of description, Living Sofa, Living Plants,
and Living Room for Birds.
This marks TWIG's first galler exhibition.
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Rose Stauffer
non-member comment
What Fun!
Malaika - I love the world you live in.! Thank you for finding it and sharing it with us. For putting it into words. All the devas and nature spirits are applauding loudly! With glee. I can feel the happiness. I eagerly await further installments, and blessings as you set out on foot. Hello to Richard whom I haven't met. Rose