Studio-Allotment Rose Garden
Image description: A lush Rose Garden in peak bloom. It's a warm, bright sunny day with clouds slightly obscuring the sun. In the background are trees, hedges and a partially obscured folding wheelchair. In the foreground is an abundance of blooming roses in shades of pink, purple and burgundy. Lime green leaves are scattered throughout the scene which is lush and fizzing with colour.
Year: 2022 - present
Medium: Gardening
Bella speaks about the work:
I began building a rose garden at my studio-allotment in 2022, and it currently consists of 26 roses, extensive hawthorn hedging, spring bulbs and perennial edible crops that contribute to this ambitious garden design. This project uses my gardening practice as a way of exploring scale in the context of illness; sculpting a space via crip-time and considers roses as an extension of my body. This has become an essential motivation for core lines of inquiry in my work; my body as my practice; searching for presence in the absence of disabled bodies; the threshold of where the disabled body leaves the private space and meets a public one.
This work is an ongoing, process based endeavour, with the ambition to share and connect with others who are interested in gardening, place and crip space. If you are interested in starting a conversation over these ideas, please get in touch!
Image description: A close-up of a rose that is losing its petals which are various shades of pink from bright fuchsia to deep burgundy. Whilst the rose has lost its full blooming shape, it remains a beautiful bouquet of floral texture and colour.
Image description: A lush summer garden in full blooms of pink, purple, mauves, burgundies and bright fronds of lime green. In the background, green trees in full leaf and a metal wheelchair partially obscured by flowers. In the foreground, lush grass grows up to the flower beds. The scene is evening sunshine, warm and beautiful.
Image description: A close-up of a rose in bloom including deep bright pink roses in bud, beginning to bloom and the main central fading bloom. It is starting to droop and its petals sag, the stems are scattered with tiny wine red thorns.
Image description: A close-up of a rose with drooping and falling petals. The rose has an open bloom structure with big blousey petals in shades of pale pink that fade to White, giving the appearance of a crumpled silk handkerchief, the petals barely holding it together.