So sullied and abused has it become at the hands of all manner of eejit politicians that you’d nearly be afraid to use the word “context” anymore. At this stage it can rightly take its place alongside ”in terms of” on the list of perfectly good pieces of the language hijacked and destroyed by the clowns.
But anyway there I was at the pre Bloom designers’ meeting last Tuesday enjoying a discussion on all things media when Fiann Ó’ Nualláin made the very good point that, independent of the garden, every designer has a story.
Clear forest in glasses on the background of blurred forest
And it got me to thinking about how we tend to undervalue the importance of our back story in defining (here it comes) context. Everything we have done and seen, everywhere we have lived, the experiences we have had, our parents and siblings, our school friends, the places we went on our summer holidays as children on some level influence what we produce. Even if you’re boring you have a story. Stories happen to people whether they like it or not. The trick is figuring out which ones to tell and how to tell them.
Each designer in that room is going to spend the next six weeks pouring every ounce of their physical and mental selves into the production of show stopping gardens for Bloom. There will be briefs to realize, sponsors to satisfy, benefactors to consider. There will be seemingly endless hours spent considering the best way to turn the visitors’ heads; agonizing over colour, shape, texture, composition, balance, harmony. The hours are long, the work is hard and it all shows in the finished product.
But are we collectively missing a trick in not pushing more of ourselves front and centre along with our gardens? A full appreciation of the work is only possible through a thorough appraisal of the context and that is only possible when you tell your story. A piece of art or creative work can only be properly understood in conjunction with an understanding of the individual who produced it. Some people are not comfortable in the media space and won’t get an explicit message out as well as others who are. For those, a well written bio can generate the crucial bit of insight the visitor can latch onto. A design without context is just a bunch of stuff. People will negotiate negativity into a void.
Could you imagine Bruce Springsteen’s nineteen seventies blue collar advocacy songs being sung by anyone other than nineteen seventies blue collar advocate Bruce Springsteen? Why did Joe Strummer try to conceal his private education? Because he instinctively understood that it created problematic context in light of what he was trying to convey with his guitar and songs of urban dispossession. Why is The X Factor nonsense? Because the context is misappropriated and therefore totally insincere. Compilation tapes get boring very quickly. There was a unique, inimitable set of circumstances surrounding the creation of an album that prompted the artist to put that song after that one, to put that one before that one.
The theme, the brief, the sponsor and the setting will provide much context but there is so much more that could be established if the designer asserted more of themselves. The better I got to know Breffni Mc Geough last year the more beautiful “Saison” became.
I am bringing The Hazel Garden to Bloom this year. I was prompted to get involved in the source garden in the centre in Monasterevin after seeing harrowing TV footage of displaced, frightened, maimed and sometimes dead children. I have five young children myself. If I was a single fella with no kids living in an apartment in Temple Bar would I be doing this garden? Probably not. So a working knowledge of my story will provide a visitor with an added layer of context that can only lead to a fuller appreciation and understanding of the garden.
Garden design exists at the attempted intersection of art and practicality. Like any piece of art, a huge influence on how it is received is how well the context is understood.
As Fiann says, “Everyone has a story”. It’s important so come on, let’s hear yours.
Leave a Reply