The Day of Judgement....

Tuesday 25th of May 'Evening Activity'

John Armstrong performs a reading of The Orchid his poem that had latterly been confined to the kitchen.  Beautiful, captivating and very, very evocative his words commanded the stirrings of the gathered crowd.  Doing what every impressionist desired, painting a picture and more, painting too atmosphere conjured up and out of the cave and into our thirsty ears.  

Even more lush in the evening light the ferns knitted around his silky pink thrown; the perfect podium.

Celebration was to be had too for the garden's popular success and so too for it's porous artificial grass sponsor; King Easigrass himself Mr Anthony Gallagher for his birthday...

As far as the medal, the Silver Gilt, the almost Gold...here's my piece...

It's always hard to comprehend when something that you truly believe in isn't quite appreciated in the same way by others.  Easy to take perhaps when you stand alone in your beliefs bringing questions to the fore, raising the standard for the next battle but when it is those that fail to grapple with it and enjoy its provocation yet who stand as a powerful minority; here the frustration lies.  

Walking on shaky ground Tony Smith's concept was definitely harder to follow than many.  Why was it that we weren't allowed in to the kitchen?  Why couldn't we ourselves sit on that seat?  Why was it that we were left as visitors standing in the heat looking in on the cool?  

The main qualm at judging was that the visitor didn't have access to the kitchen (bar the window), but what if not that happens on every other garden site across the show ground?  Only a select few are allowed to experience the delights of moving through the gardens, the rest of us hoi polloi are left gazing in from the outside.  Why should the kitchen here presented be any different?  

More exaggerated yes, but you see what Tony has done here is something really quite magnificent, for the first time a garden at Chelsea has allowed itself to be openly conscious of the voyeurism at play in every garden presented.  When you look through the window you not only see a feast of orchids but pressing your nose up to the cool glass you realize that this is out of bounds, this wonderful smelling, poetry filled space is only for those with special privileges - and you are not one of them.  This is exactly the point.  The garden then becomes the most real out of any of the other gardens, it is a personal space, crowned even by the successive romp that can be expected of the Bacopa planted against the young Fennel; a life after the bloom of the Tulips.  Strange then that the craziest looking of gardens can then turn out to be something that presents the most reality.  

Shame indeed that this garden skimmed a gold.  Shame indeed moreover, a major lost opportunity for the RHS here we are pushing boundaries following instincts, in turn innovating and the RHS return to their traditionalism.  There is room enough for at least one if not a dozen of these styles of garden at Chelsea. What is clear is that other shows, other disciplines even will start to steal Chelsea's thunder, catch bigger headlines, if these projects are undervalued.  

Collaboration has definitely been one of the main themes of Chelsea this year, respect for individual skill and belief in dialogue and companionship as mentioned previously, there is more to be made of this.  Furthermore across the board of the Arts, artists are swapping roles with curators and curators with artists; artists are swapping roles with landscape architects, or indeed they are talking, holistic approaches are the way forward this we already know.

Perhaps then there lies an underlying fear of the artist, of this all consuming canvased terrain.  Be not afraid we should call, for you see the artist is really a benevolent being, a ray of sunshine, a flash of lightening, a whisper through the trees, a dark and stirring being; and we must use the artist, to learn from them where our minds are closed where we did not know they weren't open.  Plus as you can see the artists are romping through anyway so you might as well take them in now, go on invite them in before they storm the gates or worse they don't turn up anymore...