Credit: Interacting with Winter Garden. Image courtesy of the artist.
Cheryl Pagurek: Winter Garden
Interact with this digital collage developed out of a still life photography series taken during the winter 2021 lockdown.
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Using machine learning software, Winter Garden mirrors the presence and movement of viewers via a webcam, creating an ever-changing collage composed of motifs of lively indoor plants against a desolate winter landscape. The concept began from a series of still life photographs depicting a small oasis of indoor plants that the artist tended to during the lockdown in winter 2021. Winter Garden 9, featured as part of the exhibition, is one of the photographs from the series.
Inspired by the memento mori (Latin for “remember death”) theme in classical paintings, Winter Garden uses vibrant motifs of flowers and fruits, common subjects in these paintings, to contrast them with the lifeless winter landscape in the background. The juxtaposition between the two reminds the viewer of the cycles of life while evoking a sense of joy and solace.
Winter Garden will be on display in the central part of Surrey Arts Centre where visitors will be in constant flow getting to different parts of the building. The collage is activated by passersby, mirroring their movement through the arrangement and generation of collages that disappear as the person walks away. The viewer thus becomes an active part of the artwork, their presence reflected by the composition generated unique to that moment.
Curator: Zoe Yang
Origin of exhibition: Surrey Art Gallery