Up to the mid-nineteenth century, Londoners visited Camberwell for its rural tranquillity. I will be bringing a small part of that rural life back to Camberwell Green.
I imagine lots of fashionable ladies coming out to Camberwell to enjoy rural pursuits, dressed up in to fit the occasion. As it became the vogue in Georgian times wear a shepherdess hats, referring to the romantic life of the country. Using the countryside as a fashionable backdrop for the styles of the day.
I’m interested in trying to control something that is very out of your control. Controlling nature by tidying it up and making it into a stage set. The way nature is prettified in Fragonard* painting for example. I will be ‘prettifying’ and asking other people to join in using the local rotten weeds rather than the pretty flowers planted by the council in flowerbeds. My plants will be using the local fauna of the area; pavement weeds. And in keeping with the theme of Chutney Preserves “The Rot” they will be virtually impossible to prettify.
I have been collected plants growing between the paving stones in the SE5 area. These unwanted plants are the survivors of the plant world and were be given as prizes in a raffle type competition at Chutney Preserves - Two: 'The Rot Sets In’
As is the tradition at country fetes there was a best floral arrangement table using some of the unwanted plants.
