The Brunswick Show - APokAFari - "Scene One"

La Pok Escapes invites others to perceive the world through an alternate lens, challenging pre conceived notions of how our environments should look, what they can be made of and where they can be.

This work ApokAfari is a mind-scape, a place that you can not physically inhabit, but a departure point for the imagination, promoting viewers to escape into their own Pok world dream. The intention of this work is to test techniques of how to add colour into the landscape, using a mixed medium approach to garden design. Merging the synthetic materials with plants to achieve an unreal Milieu. 

Having a window bay for the space of my installation, I immediately thought of Trompe L'oeil, which are often a landscape and window frame painted on a wall to allude that the space is bigger than it is. 

 

Material Selection 

I began this process by making a possible material list of things that I had around the house. The requirements for these materials where that they are water resistant and or bright in colour. 

To create a mini landscape I approached my plant selection the same as I would a normal garden, looking for a variety of different scales, from grasses or ground covers, to shrubs then trees. All of which had to look like a scaled down version of a life-size specimen. I was also looking for interesting colours and shapes.  I restricted myself to prodominately succulents as I knew they would remain the same once I had cut there roots back to get them into the planter.
 As the space dosen’t get any direct light if the work was to be permanent then I would have selected different plants, but for the 10 day period of the show they would be fine. 

 With these materials in mind I then began to sketch out possible designs, thinking about colour and textural adjacency.

Modular System 

As I wanted to establish the plants in the planter before the show and to reduce installation time on site, it was important that the garden be split up into sections. It was also impossible to bring the garden into the space in one section as the base had to go on its side to get into the window bay. Once I had the base made for the work, I looked for containers that would fit into this space. Having the garden split into five areas then informed the final design.

To make keep larger plants in place, a base was wire to the plant, then the base was wired to the box it was positioned in.

Scene Background 

For the background I have used coreflute sheeting. I could get this in 3 x1200 x 2400mm. I chose this material as it is water proof and bends easily. To cover the entire background I had to use three sheets. I originally wanted a gridded background over entire skyline. To make shore the three sheets looked good together I ended up making the sky in the middle sheet different so it didn't have to line up with the other. This design also lead the eye up into the sky towards the lane above.

Lighting Experiment   

As the installation is behind a window I couldn't light the mind-scape from inside the gallery as it would reflect. For this reason I began testing options for portable lights placed inside the work. In this test I used Led lights and a Tiki touch.

Installed on site

Once the work was installed I ended up using 9 different led lights around the space

Outside

Leading the work out of the gallery and into the urban fabric I installed a hanging garden above the mind scape in the lane above. This was to firstly to lead people above the window bay so they looked down from the lane. This was also an attempt to help people make a correlation between other works I have installed in the street and my work in the gallery. 

Thanks to the people who put on the Brunswick show. I had a lot of fun making the installation and checking out all the other works. The show is still open until the 13 of September at Donkey Wheel House 613 Bourke St Melbourne CBD so go have a look see. http://thebrunswickshow.com

Hanging Gardens

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I have been using found plastic molded objects to hold plants as they will not deteriorate quickly and once the guts of the object is removed, they are extremely light weight. To select sites for these mini gardens I have picked places with little to no vegetation. The object used in the space is then chosen in accordance to the programs in the area. For instance the “Pok Planter Printer” is beside a printing store on Little Latrobe

images from http://vettiliveinnorthcote.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/hanging-garden/

I wanted to find a site that was associated with having breakfast, so I decided to instal the toaster on the corner of Flinders Lane and Degraves Lane. 

Unfortunately the toaster only lasted a couple of days, before being removed. I wanted people to be able to see all sides of the work, so I hung it above the street. In hinds sight it would have stuck around longer if it was up against a wall, and not blowing around in the wind. Perhaps the cactus selection made people nervous.

I made this shoe planter with the intentions of throwing them over a power line. My friend who was helping me instal these suggested that the plants would fall out when thrown. Instead we hung them in a tree on Bourke st outside a shoe shop. When I came back to take some photo's there was a protester up in the tree. I thought this was strange to find, but was pleased that he would have had to acknowledge them and see them from a different view as he went up.

Lost Lives at the Desk Memorial

This work is a statement portraying my desire to work in the industry of landscape architecture, whilst not being confined to a world behind a computer. This aspiration for an alternative experience in the landscape is driven by an understanding of the haptic sensation’s I enjoy in my daily life, being touched by sun and the wind, seeing trees move, hearing birds calling. It seems the outside offers a much more interactive space then static environment of a building.

Acknowledging the fundamental reasons for why we work in these environments, I have decided to bring some of the sensory experiences associated with the outside, into a workspace. For this reason I propose to install vegetation into this conceptual workspace, creating a more tactile sensorial experience whilst behind a computer. This alternate experience of a computer work station with vegetation signifies our need as humans to be in contact with “nature” and not living a synthetic lifestyle. When installing the "natural" into the synthetic, the vegetation could be perceived as synthetic, as its existence in a computer is unreal. This work also comments on the limited use vegetation can play in our field of design. As Landscape architects we have the opportunity to use the most highly developed and diverse material on earth “vegetation”, but the use of this material is often overshadowed due to our design process through computers.

 

 How will people respond

The majority of materials that I have used have come from hard waste. This annual affair in our suburbs will undoubted work in favor of my installation, as it is not uncommon to see random pieces of furniture placed out of context in our urban environment.

Someones response to hard waste" Monitors in Discussion".

I predict that people will make a correlation between my installation and the objects that are currently waiting patently around the streets, much like I did a few years ago when I came across this display of monitors in discussion.

DESIGN IN PROCESS

Although the conceptual design of this installation was completed before undertaking construction, it was through the process of creation that the final design emerged. Like any design one must start somewhere. If I was go through this process again, the result would be different, but the approach and process would alternately be the same. This is due to the visual guidelines I undertake in applying the La Pok aesthetic.

Built in my backyard.

Intervention installed on site.

 By placing this desk installation on a concrete box, rather then on the grass, the eye of the viewer is more likely to recognize the work station. According to the reading “Open Spaces”, “giving form reduces the amount of individual pieces of information to be absorbed, Thus have our mind clear for additional information”. Forming means reacting to connections and creating them. Now that the work station is easily distinguished from its surroundings, the user can then to make out the components of the installation and began to unpack what it is that they see. It is this process of recognition that has inspired me to paint the work. As if I had not, it would be much easier to comprehend, that this is a desk with a computer on top, filled with plants. If this was as easily recognized it would certainly create less interest by passes by. 

I couple of months later I was searching to see if anyone had posted the memorial. I was pleasantly surprised to find an  article in the Northcote leader. If you want to check it out click here.

Pok Sculpture

 Thinking about how to place La Pok into the Landscape I decided to take a Pok Man for a walk.

Roberto Burle Marx (AWESOME)

Looking back on my precedents and thinking of "how I can be a Landscape architects as the artist La Pok?", I realized I have forgot to reference one of my favorite Landscape architects, the late but great Roberto Burle Marx.

He is someone whom has succeeded in translating his artist style directly into landscapes, through form and materials. His extensive use and knowledge of vegetation is also something I aspire to achieve in my professional practice. 

 

Caemi Foundation Rio De Janero

Safra Bank Headquarters Sao Paulo

Largo da Carioca, Rio De Janero

The images above have been sourced from the book "The Legacy of Burle Marx".

 Reflecting on Burle Marx's work it is evident that his designs stem directly from his painting style transformed into plan, whilst considering specific site condition's. I think I might select a park around Melbourne and trial different designs, with this approach.