Nathalie

Karagiannis

OneSquareMeterofGrass…

2023

OneSquareMetreofGrassfromtheCentreofthePark
One Square Metre of Grass from the Centre of the Park
Grass from the centre of NIROX Sculpture Park, South Africa
1m x 1m
Studio Installation
Benji Liebmann agreed to the excavation of a square metre of grass out of the centre of the very well tended Nirox Sculpture Park. The gesture was simple but hard, both physically in uprooting the grass and then placing it back so that it wouldn’t die, which was an important preoccupation for me; and in terms of the thought process it provoked. It started out as a reflection on the porosity of limits – a perennial concern -, on the relation inside/outside, wilderness and landscaping. And it turned out to be a questioning of artistic ethics, of the issue of displacement and of metaphor, and of what the centre might mean.

Photo credits: Yusuf Essop

Nathalie Karagiannis

2023_OneSquareMeterofGrass…_Outdoor Works
OneSquareMetreofGrassfromtheCentreofthePark
One Square Metre of Grass from the Centre of the Park

Grass from the centre of NIROX Sculpture Park, 1m x 1m
South Africa
Studio Installation

Benji Liebmann agreed to the excavation of a square metre of grass out of the centre of the very well tended Nirox Sculpture Park. The gesture was simple but hard, both physically in uprooting the grass and then placing it back so that it wouldn’t die, which was an important preoccupation for me; and in terms of the thought process it provoked. It started out as a reflection on the porosity of limits – a perennial concern -, on the relation inside/outside, wilderness and landscaping. And it turned out to be a questioning of artistic ethics, of the issue of displacement and of metaphor, and of what the centre might mean.

Photo credits: Yusuf Essop