I have been looking at works that have been suspended from the ceilings of their exhibition spaces as a kind of research for the new installation I will be creating for the Stairwell Gallery in Durham City later this month and I can’t believe I’ve only just discovered this installation by Swiss artists Gerda Steiner and Jorg Lenzlinger.

It looks like a beautiful meditative piece. As you can see from the images above, visitors were encouraged to lay on the bed in the middle of the garden and view the garden ‘falling’ upon them. Apparently it was exhibited a couple of years ago now as part of the 50th Venice Bienniale 2003 so I guess I’ve missed my chance to experience it for myself.

It’s composed of a huge variety of materials from across the globe including plastic berries (India), cow pads (Jura), waste paper (Venice), baobab seeds (Australia), beech, elder and magnolia branches (Uster), thorns (Almeria), nylon blossoms (one-dollar-shop), pigs’ teeth (Indonesia), seaweed (Seoul), orange peel (Migros shop), fertilizer crystals (home grown), pigeons’ bones (San Staë), silk buds (Stockholm), cattail (Ettiswil), cats’ tails (China), celery roots (Montreal), virility rind (Caribbean), wild bore quills (zoo), banana leaves (Murten), rubber snakes (Cincinnati)…