Hestercombe Gardens, Somerset, UK 27.09.21 & 28.09.21 | 10:00 – 16:30 BST
‘Artists and the Garden: New Perspectives’ will explore the relationship between cultural production and the garden, across creative disciplines and media, from the 18th century until the present day. Key conference themes consider the garden as a mirror of society, the garden as playground for artistic endeavours, and curating and creativity at Hestercombe – past and present. Topics range from the translocation of plants by the C19th European plant hunters, to the influence of pittoresque garden theory on interior architecture in C18th France; from the politics of inclusive public gardens in Germany, to the integration of artistic intervention, botanical sphere and landscape design in contemporary Italian gardens; and from the imaginary labyrinth and pleasure garden, to the role of rhetoric in the understanding and appreciation of gardens.

Artist Edwina fitzPatrick is presenting the paper English Gardens as Heterotopias: Colonialism and Translocated Plants.

Hestercombe – Artists and the Garden: New Perspectives Conference – this event is co-organised by Hestercombe Gardens Trust and Kingston University, London, and requires registration.