In the winter of 2001 the artists Heather and Ivan Morison acquired an overgrown allotment in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Once they had restored some semblance of order they became fascinated by the garden, which, after years of neglect, revealed the original Victorian beds and layout, as well as old apple trees and rose bushes. Thus emerged the character of Ivan Morison 'the gardener', who periodically reports, through printed cards, on the various horticultural activities that take place on his plot. As the Morisons recall, their intention when they acquired their plot was to use it as the site of a scale model of Derek Jarman's house, Prospect Cottage, where they could make works of art. Like the original Prospect Cottage, however, the house and garden have been transformed into a work of art in their own right.
Martin Postle, Art of the Garden, exh. cat., Tate Britain, 2004, p.20.

Their work has its roots in the Victorian period, since it has been moulded by the allotment they acquired in Edgbaston in 2001, which lies on ground that was once a Victorian pleasure garden. They initially took it on when they needed somewhere to install their miniature version of Derek Jarman’s Dungeness home, Prospect Cottage, but they soon found themselves entranced. Ivan would come home with tales of his struggles in the shrubbery or his haphazard planting schemes - something one inevitably finds oneself becoming more emotionally involved with that one feels is really becoming - and all of this began to seem like subject matter. A body of expert knowledge met with individual enthusiasm and this was expressed in printed card texts, which began to be issued from the garden. Thus, in the card I received last week, news of Ivan’s joy at his bedding schemes for summer 2004 (modestly and simply relayed): "Geranium Black Jubilee, Marigold Striped Marvel, Begonia Rose Petticoat, Salpiglossis Royale Chocolate, Fuschia Firecracker, Zinnia Peppermint Stick, Hibiscus Red Ace, Petunia Frilly Tunic Burgundy, Salvia Phoenix Bright Lilac..."
But Ivan and Heather Morison also combine this with reportage from the human world. One might say that the roots of this are also in the garden, since the natural life of the garden also coexists with the humanity that impinges on its borders, humanity which often keeps itself invisible to the weekend gardener, and only reveals its work when you turn up and find everything has been pinched. Strimmers disappear from sheds; lines of valuable moulded Victorian edging are lifted from the earth in the middle of the night and, on one occasion, a bottle of cheap Ukrainian vodka turned up in the shed. The garden has a secret life that is part of the lives of unknown others. It has a second secret life of the imagination which revolves around the sculptures that have come to litter the overgrown garden: John F. Kennedy sits under the garden seat, Marilyn Monroe is lost and presumed dead under the collapsed apple tree and an entire "lost" tribe reside beneath the tangled gooseberry bush. It is the universe of 1950s Life magazine colliding with a suburban allotment. Garden 114, Westbourne Road Pleasure Gardens, is a place of the mind, an irregular shape of fertile land on which to cultivate a fantasy.
Morgan Falconer, 'Mr and Mrs Ivan Morison / Gertrude Jekyll and Hyde', Foundation and Empire, Article Press, 2004.

In Colours and Sounds in Ivan Morison’s Garden Spring 2002, a looped video projected onto two sides of a small screen suspended in Ikon’s tower, visitors get a preview of Morison pottering around in his garden. Naked except for sun hat and gardening gloves, we watch the artist wander dreamily around his Elysian idyll, picking flowers and turning to beckon us into the greenhouse. This unnervingly bucolic scenic is accompanied by a soundtrack of tweeting birds and the contented strains of a sunny afternoon brass band. Our vision of a perfect English country garden, is however, shattered as we realise that the birds are singing along to the brass band and that the unnaturally hazy flowers are juxtaposed ­ this idyllic vision is a cleverly stage-crafted ruse.
Emma Safe, Flower Power, Art Monthly, July-Aug 2002, p.24.

Garden 114
2001-2004
Garden and mixed media

Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK

Image:

Colours and Sounds in Ivan Morison’s Garden, spring 2002
2002
Looping DVD