Manicure

Site specific grass cutting performances as solo performance or group action. In the 17th Century at Ham House in Richmond, the lawns – or plats as they are known – were hand trimmed by a team of gardeners using scythes and basic shears. The plats were sown at a similar time to the construction of the black and white diamond patterned marble floor in the Great Hall of the house, installed by owner Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Dysart to impress visitors and create a show. For the Trust New Art project Garden of Reason, Manicure recreated the endeavour of the Ham gardeners over one weekend, through a fruitless attempt to cut the grass of the plats by hand using scissors rather than scythes. Symbolizing the tradition of the powerful upper classes and their desire to demonstrate power and status, the action painstakingly created a manicured lawn, blade by blade, in the diamond pattern of the Great Hall floor. Initially performed as a solo action, the piece was re-performed later in the year with sixty volunteers cutting the floor pattern into the grass over the course of a day.

Manicure was first performed in 2009 on traffic islands surrounding London Fields for the project In site | my space 5. View a video of Manicure at Ham House, 2012 Manicure is available for touring, please contact the artist