Annexing a patch of grass in the Royal Botanical Gardens

Amendment present on the Pioneer Lawn in the Royal Botanical Gardens until 9 June, 2014

This amendment to the Royal Botanical Gardens has involved a process of negotiation with the authoritative body that maintains the lawns to annex an area of grass from mowing or maintenance for a fixed period of time. This is in order to enable the potential flourishing of life forms that are usually repressed by regimes of cultivation (such as weeds and local grasses) to take root and become visible. It also seeks to make an addition to public space via a subtle strategy involving the suspension of standardized procedures, in order to reveal that which operates invisibly.

Thankyou to Ivan Cheng, Jess Olivieri, Annika Kristensen, Aarna Hanley, Tai Spruit, Ezzie Margin, Anthony and Travis Farnell for assistance with this process.

Sign that is present in the gardens:

This circle of kikuyu grass was annexed on Monday January 13^th, 2014. A line was marked out indicating to the grounds-people who maintain these lawns where to stop mowing, until June the 9^th 2014.

This alteration to the lawn holds a bit of space aside by temporarily suspending routine procedures, and allowing the possibility for other life forms - such as dormant seeds, weeds and local grasses to take root and become visible. This may or may not occur depending upon contingencies such as rain, heat, wind and the delivery of seeds and spores from the surrounding airborne environment enveloping this location.

This annexation suggests how all things now present are a fragment and expression of a much larger construction and are radically impermanent.

I would like to acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional owners of the land on which this project occurs – the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. It is upon their ancestral lands that this garden is constructed.