Pleasance
Awe at the Art Gallery of South Australia
NATURE: Art x Plant, Installation & Intervention, Partnership
TIMELINE: Exhibition 2024
DESIGN PARTNERS: Fallow, Art Gallery of South Australia, Nature Festival SA.
OVERVIEW:
Housed in the sculpture garden at the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), Pleasance is an immersive installation that offers a playful interpretation of the dance between art and nature. The installation formed part of South Australia’s ‘Nature Festival’, celebrating nature and culture in its varied forms.
Brought to life in partnership with architecture firm Fallow, the installation invited visitors to connect deeply with nature through a series of living sculptures. The idea for the installation was inspired by the serene surroundings of the nearby Karrawirra Parri/River Torrens.
The tactility of the living sculptures called visitors to pause and take a quiet moment to reflect and immerse themselves in the natural world. The installation blended architectural elements with voluminous botanical beauty, quietly calling visitors to pause or meander through and devour the beauty in all its luminosity.
Acting as an extension of the Art Gallery of South Australia, the plants within the installation took centre stage, with rich layered planting and vibrant swathes of colour. “Pleasance is a bit like a plant gallery – a place where people can come to be enriched by plants in the same way they are enriched by art”.
Image credit: Bri Hammond
'Transitions between places are curious, between inside and outside, built form and the natural world. May we live and engage more in the transition, be drawn more often outside, and meet plants to stoke more awe.'
Jac Semmler, Plant Practitioner & Director, Super Bloom
INSPIRING AWE
The concept of Pleasance was born out of a desire to explore the theme of ‘awe’ that underpinned the year’s Nature Festival.
Experiences in nature so often nurture a sense of awe within us and the installation examined how to inspire that feeling in our modern world.
the connection between art and nature
A COLLABORATION BETWEEN ARCHITECTURE AND PLANTING DESIGN
The collaborative nature of the project saw the specialisations of two teams come together to form a bountiful partnership. Fallow Architecture uses their work to foster a deeper connection between people and their environment.
Super Bloom use plants as a paintbrush, creating dynamic, biodiversity and richly layered planting designs that celebrate beauty and abundance in floral form.
The installation serves as a testament to the collaboration’s shared belief in the power of nature to inspire, heal and connect.
IN INVITATION TO DELIGHT IN NATURE
As part of South Australia’s ‘Nature Festival’ the installation explored the intersection between art and nature, offering an experience for visitors to move through and explore the immersive abundance of the build forms and abundant florals at their own pace.
Pleasance was an invitation for visitors to experience the vastness and mystery of the world through lens of art and nature.
exploring plants as art
HATTIE MOLLOY AT MELBOURNE ART FAIR
Hattie Molloy with growing support from Super Bloom created a living installation for Melbourne Art Fair.
SUPER BLOOM AT THE CONVENT
Small scale need not mean small impact, and Super Bloom at the Convent proves that small scale planting can have large community impact.
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