Art Metropole

#04478

Gardens of a Colonial Present

Artist

Ron Benner

Price

$30.00

Date

2008

Format

Catalogues

Details

Softcover

ISBN

in

Size

14.5 × 20 cm

Length

0 

Since the early 1970s Ron Benner has travelled extensively throughout North, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. A voracious reader, he consults and collects a broad range of texts and books, on themes such as agriculture, bio-engineering, capitalism, colonialism, history and politics, which in equal parts inform his practice. Together these experiences have shaped a unique body of garden installations comprised of plants, photographs and textual elements that question and critique industrial agriculture, embedded anthropology, euro-centric knowledge and the global economy.

Gardens of a Colonial Present contains photographic documentation of Benner’s numerous garden projects, and brings together seminal early essays with newly commissioned texts to explore the evolution of his garden works. This catalogue features essays by authors from diverse areas of expertise – including genetics, cultural geography and social anthropology, among others – illustrating the broader significance of Benner’s art. This publication is the first comprehensive examination of his garden installations, intertwining the central themes of activism, environmentalism and global politics that span the breadth of his practice.

Includes texts by: Melanie Townsend, Mireya Folch-Serra, Matthew Teitelbaum, Len Findlay, Adriana Premat, Dianne Bos, Marcel Blouin, Andy Patton, Barbara Fischer, Joe Cummins, Scott Toguri McFarlane, Gerald McMaster, and Ron Benner.