A Garden for Norman

// Thurs. 11/11 – Sat. 27/11 2010

Did you know that RM’s current space used to be a restaurant, and that its walls still have the telltale veneer of fat on them? Or that it was built for a man named Norman?

Inspired by past inhabitants of Tuatara house, Kirsten Dryburgh will draw the building’s history out over a two-week laboratory, in which experiments and gestures are performed/created to summon the ghosts of Tuatara past. Such processes will involve materials like concrete, rocks and plants – in reference to the Chelsea physics garden where apothecaries honed and preserved their knowledge of plant science. These materials will be used to animate the space and create a lab of living history and things.

Dryburgh is an artist who lets materials, living or inanimate, tell their own stories. She has a specific interest in natural phenomena and environmental science. As a result, she is also keen on the relationships between the natural world, society, technology and science. She often employs a research-based, investigative approach in her art practice, which then enables her to intuit new relationships and narratives.