"The gardens of history are being replaced by sites of time."
—Robert Smithson
—Robert Smithson
Created by the landscape architect William Kent in the 1720s, London’s Chiswick House and Gardens are lush and lovely but haunted now by their own history, their own aging aspirations for grace and grandeur. Intended to recreate a garden of ancient Rome, the grounds are filled with trails lined with tall trees, picturesque ponds and streams, cracked statues, and faded monuments, all of them evocative of times long past and of those who have vanished within them.
On the Pond: To think about these Gardens is to think about time passing, about time’s layers of history, and the place, this place, as a site of time, a site of transformation and change. And then to see this site, as if it were a kind of theatrical stage upon which weappear, and then disappear, as others have appeared and disappeared before us. Stories are told and re-told--once upon a time, a time once upon—of moments forgotten and of moments remaining. Like water under the bridge, we see the trace of time—its translucence, its transience—and the movement of the moment of remembrance.
On the Pond: To think about these Gardens is to think about time passing, about time’s layers of history, and the place, this place, as a site of time, a site of transformation and change. And then to see this site, as if it were a kind of theatrical stage upon which weappear, and then disappear, as others have appeared and disappeared before us. Stories are told and re-told--once upon a time, a time once upon—of moments forgotten and of moments remaining. Like water under the bridge, we see the trace of time—its translucence, its transience—and the movement of the moment of remembrance.
In the Stream: At a bend in the brook, just down the trail from the garden’s Ionic Temple, the word ‘R E M E M / B R A N C E” was written on the still water. Divided within itself, the word’s formation split and separated upon the water’s reflecting surface (a world turned upside down). The floating word was then read in motion, read in time, seen and assembled while walking along this quiet stream, as if moving into the word, into the memory of the word’s meaning, into the meaning of its memory—inscribed in time, pictured into place.
De-Installation of half of "Remembrance," June 13, 2019 (video by Nicholas Coleman)
The Installation Announcement
The Morning of the Installation at the Orange Tree Grove and Ionic Temple
Installation Photographs by Aaron Colina
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Lord Burlington (1694-1753)
Chiswick House and Gardens Proprietor and Architect |
William Kent (1685-1748)
Chiswick Gardens Landscape Architect |
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"William Kent was painter enough to taste the charms of landscape . . . He leapt the fence, and saw that
all nature was a garden. He felt the delicious contrast of hill and valley changing imperceptibly
into each other, tasted the beauty of the gentle swell, or concave scoop, and remarked
how loose groves crowned an easy eminence with happy ornament.”
—Horace Walpole (1717-1797)
all nature was a garden. He felt the delicious contrast of hill and valley changing imperceptibly
into each other, tasted the beauty of the gentle swell, or concave scoop, and remarked
how loose groves crowned an easy eminence with happy ornament.”
—Horace Walpole (1717-1797)
Pictured into Place
Many thanks to Nicolas Coleman, Sarah Fogleman, Henry Fullerton, and Christyn Kelly for assisting with this installation; and to Jake Lonergan at Chiswick House and Gardens.
Copyright © 2019 Clark Lunberry. All rights reserved.