SOPHIE BOWNES

Clapham Orangery

October 1st - 4th 2015

 

#Utopia sees the derelict Clapham Orangery filled with a plethora of plant-based artworks as part of the Art Licks Weekend.

 

Using the unused site that sits humbly in the Notre Dame Estate in Clapham; the orangery’s unique attributes including towering Georgian columns, high ceilings and great acoustics is the perfect backdrop for 16 contemporary artworks.

 

Forming a conversation between reality and artificiality, in a synthetic garden of paradise; the Latin phrase 'Hic Ver Assiduum Atque Alienis Mensibus Aestas' inscribed at the top of the orangery’s façade, translates to: Here is ceaseless spring and summer in months in which summer is alien.

 

#Utopia; the embodiment of this text, explores the boundaries between the artificial and manmade, working in conjunction with the derelict state of the site and traditional architecture of this historic building. Injecting highly saturated aesthetics and idealisms, #Utopia encompasses all that is promised in the notion of utopic paradise through the creation of a perpetual summer.