THE GARDEN PROJECT
Gardens tell us about ourselves, like it or not. In New Zealand, my native country, gardens are, like Kiwi culture in general, an eclectic mix of elements from all over the world. They suggest that postcolonial cultures are always a negotiation between the indigenous and the exotic, the past and the future. Gardens link us not only to our regional ecologies, but also to traditions of landscape-making that are cthonic and imported, appropriate and abusive, original and adapted. They remind us of our own evolution. Materials, geologies, plants, agricultural and industrial spatialities, deeply ingrained cultural practices: these are the stuff of garden-making, which makes it so fascinating.