Islington Tribune - News: Making blooming big statement

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Islington Tribune - by PETER GRUNER
Published: 14 December 2007

A happy visitor to The Land of Cockaigne heads off with some free flowers

Making a blooming big statement

HOW far should art go to make a point? That was the question being asked this week after a gallery in Finsbury Square handed out 150,000 flowers to delighted members of the public.
The event was a new exhibition by husband and wife concept artists Heather and Ivan Morison at the Bloomberg Space gallery which finished on Tuesday night.
At no small cost – the gallery refuses to discuss how much – the flowers were brought over from Holland by lorry on Monday and displayed at the gallery for the exhibition in what was described as a floral “warehouse effect”.
Among the themes of the event, called The Land of Cockaigne, was the danger to the environment from the international trade in flowers, which results in the burning of thousands of tons of fossil fuel and the overabundance of cheap flowers in Britain. Indeed, the very things the gallery and artists appeared to be promoting.
Greater London Authority Green representative Jennie Jones said: “I can see what they are getting at. But I can’t see how giving away 150,000 flowers makes a valid political point.”
The artists, who run an arboretum in Wales, were unavailable for comment.
But a spokeswoman for Bloomberg said the idea of bringing over the flowers was to raise political awareness of the issues through an artistic event, as well as having fun.
“We hoped it worked on various levels,” she added. “We did consider the effect of bringing over 150,000 stems but thought it was worth it in order to make a point.
“We gave flowers away to our 500 or so guests at the exhibition and the rest distributed to members of the public. People generally didn’t want to be seen as greedy and took what they needed to give to a loved one.”
Jennie Jones was not impressed. “I can’t get away from the fact that they imported the flowers by lorry. I know it was a one-off but it was not setting a good example”

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