@workinthegarden.community
Norbert Francis Attard, artist-in-residence with A Lot of Possibilities, creates a series of 15 site-specific works
at the West 104th Street Community Garden,
off Central Park West in New York.
Curated by Anna Lise Jensen.
18 September – 13 October, 2010.
I was immediately intrigued by the challenge set forth by Anna Lise Jensen ‘s “A Lot of Possibilities #2.” The context is complex, dense and alive: a community garden in the heart of New York City. My thought was to explore the worlds suggested by the site: the Office and the Garden. Both are compact places of social interaction, confined by definite boundaries, one by a chain-link fence, the other by walls of glass, mortar and steel. Both are work places, both are integral parts of urban life, both engage the waking thoughts of New Yorkers. The 9-to-5 (or in New York, longer) routine of the office consumes most of our waking hours, threatening to overwhelm our lives. Despite this—or perhaps because of it—many people manage to have a relationship with nature—plants, soil, animals, the weather. To be fulfilled, we need to engage in both worlds, to create a balance between work and play, the manmade and the natural, electronic and organic, the virtual and the real.