“INCIDENTS IN A GARDEN” 1977
POPULAR PRESS Should you happen to step into the Acme Gallery, Covent Garden, one morning during the next three weeks - beware! A surprise awaits you. Wander past a column of portraits - featuring Hitler, Churchill, Gandhi, Kennedy, Mao and de Gaulle - towards a painted wall and a wooden gate. Look around the corner and there before you, you will see a petite curly haired woman gazing intently into a neon lit mirror. Stroke by stroke, she is banishing her fair skin and curls for the macabre guise of a circus clown; white skull and glittering costume.
John Spearman, West London Observer, May 26 1977
PRESS RELEASE What is remarkable over and above the combination of these things is the consistency in strength and decisiveness of the imagery, and the immaculateness and professionalism in construction of all the objects involved. They all have sufficient authority or plausibility to create a whole which is undeniably real but of Rose's making, and therefore entirely subject to her manipulation, as indeed are the archetypal power-figures which are manipulated dummies. The above description is necessarily inadequate, partly because one does not wish to give the game away too soon. Each set of objects are capable of sustaining separate viewing on their own, and hold surprises and present paradoxes for and to the spectator as they transcend traditional ideas about 'painting' and 'sculpture', and take one through from apparent to actual realities.
Jonathan Harvey, Acme Gallery, London, May 1977
ART PRESS 'Incidents in a Garden' is a work in which the past and its confusions become subject to the exigencies of the present; and one in which Garrard 's performing, her manipulation of the figures, her role-changing, becomes, in the face of the will-to-power of male representation a gesture of emancipation. Transformed into stage-props, these male authority figures have been brought Into a world constructed on Garrard’s terms. Ludic celebration, garden of personal remembrance, exorcism of male roles, the work was a staging of vulnerability over power. As a spectacular finale to the work and as an extension of its openness, during the final week Garrard had invited eight artists from various disciplines to perform in the space. On the last night dancers from the Royal Ballet, having danced the politicians, systematically destroyed the downstairs installation. This remarkably imaginative and energetic work initiated Garrard's examination of the personal through the use of narrative and myth; it represented the point in her work where the personal and the social coalesce; and it was where she began to elaborate on the idea of frames, on the 'mockery of frames'.
John Roberts, 'Between Ourselves', Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 1984
SITE
'Incidents in a Garden' Acme Gallery London
COMPONENTS
Lower Gallery: six paintings of male archetypes in vacuum formed frames, 'Power House' dolls house with six miniature figures, 'Gifts' six domestic objects on plinths, 'Flat' low relief panel of section of wall and door, 'Set Piece' sawdust ring, dressing table and mirror, two ventriloquist soft sculpture figures, with scripted live action to audio-tape once each week. 'Story Board' continuous strip around gallery walls comprising photos, text, drawings, coloured illustrations and hand written Script for Imaginary film. All objects have tie-on labels as film props. Upper Gallery: 'Dividing Wall' actual brick wall and replica garden door, built across gallery throughout the three weeks as a task- based durational live work, 'Random Dialogues' improvised performances daily with articulated life size fibreglass clown figure,'Monument' in carved polystyrene with bronze patina of Hitler and Churchill seated in armchairs having tea, with visible fixing instructions, painted canvas paved pathway, artificial grass, walls painted as brickwork, and 'Smile Please' continuous play black and white video. Invited Individual Evening Performances by:
1 Peter Butcher (Behavioural Psychologist)
2 Brian Routh (of Kipper Kids performance duo)
3 Marilyn Halford and William Raban (Filmmakers)
4 Tina Keane (Multi-media artist)
5 David Drew (Choreographer) and Royal Ballet School students
6 Ron Haselden and Stephen Ricketts (Multi-media artists).