_EPHEMERAL HORTICULTURE: MELBOURNE FESTIVAL INSTALLATION – ‘GRASSLANDS’

On display as part of the Melbourne Festival [and extending until 23 November 2014] is an exhibition referencing key vegetative elements of a landscape [in particular the grasses and low growing shrubs] which would have existed before 1830 in the area around the State Library of Victoria [which is located on the corner of Swanston and Latrobe Streets Melbourne].

Artist Linda Tegg in collaboration with horticulturalist John Delpratt and landscape architect Anthony Magen has assembled in large plant trays 10,000 plants comprising 60 indigenous species, evoking a landscape lost.  The resultant interventionist interplay between the kinetic unkemptness of the pre existing grasslands and the manicured constraint of current lawns and bluestone steps, is intriguing on many levels.  While the imagery is captivating however, it would have been even more satisfying had there been text describing the plant species and the contrasting cultural contexts of these landscapes.