A year long durational project that was commissioned by Nuffield Theatre- a producing theatre company based on Southampton University’s campus. The piece was set in a ‘shady, neglected’ space outside the theatre and gallery at Lancaster University. Their brief was to explore ideas of time and endurance; performance and presence, within the framework of one year and so decided to create a garden in the concrete clad university campus. Apart from gardening, they hosted open days and musical events as the space featured a piano as well as a shed and pergola for climbing plants and had occasional chats with audience members. Their process was recorded on web cam and occasional newsletter on brown paper. Although the project was constant for a year, they were only there for 60 out of 365 years, allowing their labours and occasional presence to constitute the performance. After a year, they left the space. The space still exists but rather than a performance, as a “new ‘space’ in the fabric of the university campus”
Gathering Time, the archive for the project featuring ‘treasures’ from the piece, such as seed packets and books are in displaying in the Manton room at Lancaster University.
This piece interested us as our chosen site has many similarities to Raisin and Willow’s site: A concrete space outside an arts venue that has gone untouched despite being in a public location. The duration of the piece is similar to our ideas: Preparing and planting the garden, viewing the garden, the garden continuing under a new existence.
As a family garden, the courtyard saw a family grow and children grow up and have their own, but now it is just a storeroom and a place to put things that don’t fit anywhere else. A garden would bring the place back to life for the Drill Hall users to enjoy, as well as to commemorate the space and the Huckett family in a way that will last longer than the performance both physically and in peoples’ memories.
http://www.nuffieldtheatre.co.uk/about-us
http://raisinandwillow.co.uk/projects/making-time/
http://raisinandwillow.co.uk/projects/gathering-time/