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Installation with live elements, UK, 2004
The starting point for this work was the social history of particular plants that had been brought to the estate, for example the bamboo, which was brought early in the nineteenth century, and an interest in the use of and dependence on foreign cash crops such as sugar and tea (tabacco flowers are visible in some of the images). This led to an exploration of the migrant’s sense of place/ displacement and the integration of the ‘foreign’ with the ‘native’ in relation to the plants and people of the area.
This rotating Victorian summerhouse was converted into a fully-functioning teahouse, with antique furnishings, potted bamboo and decorated with screenprinted wallpaper. Guests were received to drink tea, the wallpaper acting as a backdrop and a potential decoder for the micropolitics of this daily social act.
A book was produced to accompany this work, Thought of as Foreign; for details, see the publications page.
Commissioned for:
Bolwick Arts 2, Norfolk, England, 2004
Residency and exhibition funded by Arts Council England East & Norfolk County Council, 2004
