11 November 2011

Green Nation at Artisan Gallery

Brisbane's Artisan Gallery presents Green Nation: An Exhibition of Living Art, Craft and Design. Louise Martin-Chew reports.

Green Nation, with apologies to Richard Llewellyn (How Green Was My Valley), asks "How green is my home?" However this exhibition of art, craft and design is not intended to be competitive or comparative, but takes nature inside in quirkily functional ways.

A group of artists and designers showing at Brisbane's Artisan explore how far green may go. Living art, craft and design is taken inside homes and onto the body. Their green initiatives utilise otherwise wasted water and add facility to residents.

Richard Neville, Lightbulb

The question, in an exhibition like this, is whether a connection with nature is as simple as re-housing living plants into designer planter boxes, or if a green sensibility offers a more considered interaction with the world of plants.

Another Studio for Design, Growing Postcard Village

In reality, Green Nation offers both. Richard Neville's herb table and grass rug allows a barefoot walk on grass and fresh herbs, all without leaving the house. La Chahn Nguyen's moss bathmat is fed by the humidity and dampness of the bathroom and provides a sensual experience underfoot after a shower.

Simple decorative devices, like moss graffiti by Christian Duell (pictured above), replenish the oxygen levels inside the home, adding to the pleasure of interior dwelling, and Eliza Donald's Edible Island Planters combine growing quality herbs with charming sculptural forms.

Edible Islands, Planter

Clare Poppi's rings sprout grass, keeping the fragile nature of the natural world in your thoughts. And Donna Franklin's Fibre Reactive is a dress that sprouts from orange fungi. Janet Laurence's Repatriation Garden for Plants is her contemplation of the imaginary psychological state of the plants under our care.