51 Garden Ornaments
Many years ago, I went to the movie “The Full Monty” with my friend Chris Reilly, who is from Long Island. I remember at the end we could not stop laughing, and she was in tears, saying “the gnomes! That’s SO LONG ISLAND!” I thought the gnomes were great characters, or at least very important symbolically. Then again, I was an English major, and I tend to read a lot more into things than is actually intended. Bottom line is, I always get a kick out of a gnome or a pink flamingo.
Martha Schwartz’s Westfalia Germany exhibition, 51 Garden Ornaments, highlighted the meaning of these yard trinkets, and her words on the subject are much more eloquent than mine:
Our gardens have become increasingly important in our everyday lives. The reason for this may be our increasing need for an escape from our information society. This is true for the United States as well as Germany, two places where I have been working and spending time. The importance of our gardening activities is made evident through the fact that in the USA gardening is a billion-dollar industry and gardening our #1 hobby.In addition to being a beloved past-time spent nurturing our immediate home environments, our gardens are, in fact, a vehicle of expression through which we broadcast our individual message or image to the world. It is the picture window through which the world sees us. To this end, our gardens are a highly manipulated piece of nature in which the choice of ornaments placed in the garden reflects the home-owners character, and in turn, collectively, a national character.51 Garden Ornaments displays the ornaments which Americans and Germans often choose to place in their gardens. The ornaments have been purchased at garden-store chains which sell high volumes of these artifacts. I have chosen ornaments which also seem most popular and typical. Because of the sheer numbers and ubiquity, these ornaments therefore reflect who we are and how we would like to be seen. They come to characterize a larger collective landscape as we see them often in people’s yards. They represent areas of cultural similarity as well as difference.
• Images from marthaschwartz.comÂ
April 29th, 2008 at 4:39 am
I look forward to enjoying my back yard each evening. The garden ornaments we have give our backyard an artsy feel and appeal. Which is enjoyable to the eye when mixed within our greenery.
April 29th, 2008 at 6:07 am
Well, it’s pretty obvious that we love the pink flamingo (and have many)… but we also have a few frogs and turtles in our garden.