Unlike any other festival, The Secret
Garden Party is a fantastical wonderland of pure eccentricity and
even purer ecstasy. Music plays only a part in what is a
myriad of phantasmagoric installations, interactive art,
spectacular fancy-dress and bizarre side-shows: a
carnival-esque celebration of creative freedom. Each year the SGP
organisers issue a theme inviting artists to fill the Garden with
installations that will bring festival-goers together for a
mystical experience. It's an opportunity for artists to break free
from the austere white walls of the modern gallery space and
exhibit in a natural environment bordering on dream-world. We
headed down to the Secret Garden to check out the art work chosen
for the Cambridgeshire manor grounds.
This year's theme was 'Origins and
Frontiers' inspired by Paul Gauguin's painting of a Tahitian
paradise: 'Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we
going?'. Interpretations came in all different shapes and sizes but
one of the headlining pieces by art collective I.Rene seemed to
defy all laws of physics and gravity: from the main arena, as
Blondie belted out 'One Way or Another', you could see 'Is.Land', a
mini Garden of Eden floating in the air- a suggestion of the story
of Creation but also of an after-life. The play on boundaries of
time and space was rife throughout the art works as antique clocks
hung from bird cages, and giant daffodils towered over dancing
Gardeners in displays that harked back to Dali's surrealist idiom.
At night the Garden became even more
surreal as the 'Lumi Forest' was lit up in soft hues of pink, blue
and gold whilst mythical performers roamed in and out of groups of
people lying back, tripping out, taking it all in.
We later found Saatchi winner Helen
Bentley's 'Do Not Disturb The Birds' installation hanging from
nearby branches: a collection of bird boxes with voices emanating
from within. But our own favourite was Hugo Fergusson's 'Monuments
to the Keepers of Time': three monstrous-looking (but secretly
protective) creatures that we came to love as Pocahontas loved
Grandmother Willow. Through the dark sky, their huge eyes gleamed
right across the festival, like watchtowers, luring people in from
far-off distances. Their open mouths served as sanctuaries from the
chaos outside, where we sat for hours as if time really had stood
still.
The highlight of the festival was, of
course, the fireworks on Saturday night and the burning of the
gigantic Dragonfly, which had been installed on a float in the
lake. The brightly painted insect with red
wire-mesh wings went up in flames, only adding to the
magnificence of the ephemeral art work. Smaller lanterns were lit
and released into the explosive sky that for a few minutes appeared
like a Pollock painting in action. Closer to the bay, Jane
Palmer and Ildiko Buckley's site-specific piece which
spelt out the word 'YES' in glittering sequins was a most fitting
accompaniment to the stunning scene above.
YES was the word for the weekend for,
after all, at The Secret Garden Party anything goes.
Sooanne Berner
Image credits:
'Is.Land' by I.Rene. Image by Nick Caro.
'Do Not Disturb The Birds' by Helen Bentley. Image by Helen
Bentley.
'Monuments to the Keepers of Time' by Hugo Fergusson. Image by
Hugo Fergusson.
'YES' by Jane Palmer and Ildiko Buckley. Image by Andrew
Whitton.
