•Artist: Betsy Damon
-Keepers of the Waters
-Environmental activist
•Title: The Living Water Garden
•Year: 1998
•First theme park located in Chengdu, Sichuan
•24,000 square meter
•An organic system for water purification
•An educational centre
2. Background
•Serious problems of Fu-Nan River in Chengdu
-Pollution
-Old structures
-Poor conditions
-Flooding
*That’s why Betsy Damon came with The Living Water Garden!
She creates art parks featuring sculptural flow forms and public art events to help clean urban waterways and raise water awareness around the globe
3. The Cleaning Water Process through the natural treatment system in the park
The Living Water Garden consists of several stages to clean the water:
3.1) Settling Ponds
-Larger materials settle to the bottom
-Microbiology will be injected into the pond
-Good water contains minerals and micro organisms
-Past over a stony area to aerate
-Air helps the water to clean
-Through many different plants that absorb different chemicals
3.2) Flowforms
-Sculpture in shape of petals
-Water always moves, forming and reforming vortices (not in straight lines)
-Regards as a motion which helps to clean water
3.3) Constructed wetlands and Fish Pond (Major part of purifying system)
-Plants and animals will further clean the water
-Plants: absorb pollutants and transform it into nutrients
-Fish: settle out the dirty matter
3.4) Water Monitoring Station = Environmental education center
-Serve the 9 million citizens of Chengdu
-Large public green house is located in the center
-Children and others can play in the water
4. How the work expresses the theme of PLACE? (With quotation in required reading)
A)By historical significance (collective memory)
Quotation:
- “The theme of place intersects with the theme of time, especially the subthemes of memory and history. … Places that are steeped in historical significance may become part of nation’s identity and collective memory.” P.70
-The Living Water Garden
-Address the exceptional history of water in Sichuan province and Chengdu
-With a long history of grace and charm
-A water system that describes the history of water through an experience of water
-Citizens gather along the river, with a passion for their historical memories
B)By symbolic meaning and aesthetic value
Quotation:
- “Places have literal value; they may contain natural resources such as timber, oil, or abundant water …” P.71
- “The symbolic value of a place reflects an accumulation of psychic meanings.” P.71
-The Living Water Garden
-Symbolic meaning:
-Fish shape of the park = symbol of regeneration in Chinese culture
-Relationship between fish and water
-Water = spiritual basis of life
-Aesthetic value:
-Particular esthetics of architecture such as fish shape/ petals/ circle … etc.
C)By environmental protection and educational purpose
Quotation:
- “In the case of attempts to protect natural places, some artists subscribe to a pantheistic view of nature, a belief in wilderness as a source of spiritual energy.” P.80
- “Throughout the last three decades, artists have expressed the alarm felt by many people over the increasingly imperiled ecology of the earth.” P.81
-The Living Water Garden
-A response to serious environmental problems (I.e. Pollution in Fu-Nan river)
-Arouse the sense of citizens in keeping the water clean
-Connect the nature with people (Human engagement and the natural site)
-Aim in teaching and inspiration (People can walk everywhere in the park)
5. Other works from Betsy Damon
A)The DaVinci Water Garden; Portland
-Completed in 2003
-Community based collaboration between Urban Water Works and da Vinci Arts Middle School
-Located on an abandoned tennis court
-Redirects stormwater from rooftops and a parking lot through an educational and artistic water garden
B)Sounds of Water Fountain Model Project ; Redding , CA.
-Multi-functional water feature and a metaphor for the mountains and earth
-Uses of water are represented as three systems: agriculture, industry and domestic water
-Water bubbles, sprays and gurgles through the system and discharged → wetland
-Waters are recycled
6. My Own opinion on The Living Water Garden
6.1 Transferable concept (Useful+Meaningful)
-Can apply to other countries in relations to specific sites
-Response to the environmental problems and cultural resources in the whole world
-Real impact may be small but the sense of encouragement in reclaiming the river is high
-Cleaning: symbol + learning
“The park is not mine,” she says. “That is a really important truth. We did it together.”
--- From an interview with Betsy Damon
6.2 Garden of harmony
-Beautiful public park with different forms of sculptures
-Flood walls of the garden → design to encourage inter-action with the river and assist new life
-Maybe it can apply in Hong Kong since HK lacks of this kind of garden?!
7. Two important quotes on environmental arts that I found …
7.1) “Nature is a part of the medium employed by the artist, in some substantial sense. … Natural materials are not only a crucial element of the artwork’s medium, they are also a part of its content.”
7.2) “That is, acknowledging the natural element of an environmental artwork is vital for understanding the meaning of the work.”
Text: From Aesthetics and Nature by Glenn Parsons, P.129
8. Here comes to the question time … : ]
Question: Due to the increase in environmental artworks nowadays, what kinds of natural materials (except WATER mentioned by THE LIVING WATER GARDEN) would you want to incline to work with if you are an environmental art pioneer?
Please kindly suggest or name one natural material you may think of… rather than WATER… Why do you suggest this kind of natural material?
*Kason’s suggestion … : ]
My choice:
Timber
Reason:
-Great impact on nature and environment
-Having a sustainable forest utilisation
-Maintenance of protection forests
-Keeping the forests healthy and young, etc.
-Preservation of our natural landscape
Example:
Timber Construction Art project in Austria , 2005.
http://www.cipra.org/alpknowhow/bestpractice/Timber%20Construction%20Art?set_language=de&cl=en
*Reference
1) Bibliography
Robertson, Jean, and Craig McDaniel (2005) Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Parsons, Glenn. Aesthetics and Nature. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008.
2) Articles about the Living Water Garden in Chengdu
Damon, Betsy, The Living Water Garden of Chengdu, China, Earthlight, Fall 2001
Damon, Betsy and Anne Mavor, The Living Water Garden, Whole Earth, Spring 2000
Editors, EDRA design award, Living Water Park, Places, Winter 2000
Mavor, Anne, China’s Living Water Garden, YES! A journal of positive futures, Winter 1999/2000
3) Websites and newspapers online
http://74.6.146.127/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=The+Living+Water+Garden+by+Denis+Betsy+Damon%2C+1998&meta=rst%3Dhk&fr=FP-tab-web-t&u=www.forumonpublicpolicy.com/archivesum07/graham.mark.pdf&w=living+water+garden+gardening+denis+betsy+damon+1998&d=MntBmKm4ULv5
http://www.keepersofthewaters.org/resources.cfm
http://www.wellnessgoods.com/garden.asp
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/changing-the-climate/312
http://hk.search.yahoo.com/search/combo?p=The+Living+Water+Garden&fr=FP-tab-web-t&fr2=sb-top&rd=r1
http://www.cipra.org/alpknowhow/bestpractice/Timber%20Construction%20Art?set_language=de&cl=en
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