elmgreen & dragset at TRACK

cultivated nature by michael elmgreen & ingar dragset, 2012 all images courtesy TRACK

london-based artists michael elmgreen & ingar dragset have placed on display an outdoor installation for ghent, belgium’s TRACK public art festival. the duo are well known for their collaborative sculptural, performance and installation efforts being bitingly humorous, as both men attempt to break down and make sense of the pretentious nature existent throughout the contemporary art world. in citadel park, the artists have gathered several fallen leaves of varying shapes and sizes, sealing them within a glass rectangular display table typically used for the show of rare artifacts. in this particular installation, elmgreen & dragset have again challenged societal expectations of interventionist art, bringing to a public, outdoor space a display of objects which would typically exist within the environment without particular attention paid to their small forms. adding to the repurposed and cultivated approach to their work formed from fallen leaves, the artists have added a layer of metallic paint, allowing each component to exist as an even further unique object within the strict form of the glass encasement, now existing as permanent artifacts in their own right. the artist’s work provides park visitors with a nostalgic lens through which to view the idea of nature as they attempt to showcase an action made by deciduous trees which many see as a clear symbol in nature for the passage of time.

a closer view of the small display table which typically lives within a museum’s walls

natural light dances off the surfaces of the now metallic leaves