Tree
houses are places of longing and escape. Memories of childhood,
counterculture movements and humanity's roots are evoked in an
instant at the sight of them. These
miniature worlds offer a post-apocalyptic vision of the plants we
call weeds – those hardy and resilient pests of the plant kingdom -
as stand in and replacement for trees becoming neo trees, a new home
for the human primate.
Utilising
the Platform window boxes visually in a similar manner to their
original purpose, hovering on the edge of being at once a museum
exhibit (a relic of the past) and an architectural model (a plan for
the future); we placed within them weeds we made out of
artificial flowers occupied by model tree houses. To further enhance
the sensation of the work, a photographic diorama was installed on
the walls and the floor of the boxes depicting vacant lots and
disused spaces throughout the city.
If we hope to live in harmony with the natural world and not dominate it, we need to understand the drives of the culture we live in. To transform ourselves we need to look at the unwanted parts of our nature and our culture. To build a tree house in a weed is to embrace the overlooked, to be at ‘home’ with the unpredictable changes occurring in our physical and social landscape.
(excerpt
from proposal, Mariana Jandova & Tony Cran, 2011)
