(G2)
21-02-2025
First, a note of appreciation: Thanks, Victor, Naja, and Johan, for the inspiring forum you opened here. I will continue the exchange with the garden as our shared space of reflection.
My letter unfolds through the lens of a series of works I developed last fall - gardening devices for ongoing maintenance. Both works and words evolved in the wake of graduation, as if to somehow sustain a sense of continuity in my work. Therefore, I see the letter reflecting the theme ongoing work - both in the continuous care and maintenance of a garden and in the ongoing iteration of ‘work’ .
The two specific works I will focus on are versions of a rose shear and a robotic lawnmower - both instruments to ensure a garden stays groomed, neat, and in line with a broader vision, perhaps even a vision of nature. Beyond their everyday functions, they evoke perspectives on gardening that I thought would be interesting to share - some of which surfaced in discussions in the second.garden group last fall.
Rose Shear (2024). Rose resin.
The rose shear represents, to me, the intimate work of trimming rose bushes in early spring. It is a tool with strong sensory feedback: it springs open and cuts with a chewy bite, somehow setting a flow in the work by itself. Something about this device feels so personal - the slightly curved handles, the small sprockets, and the beak-like blade. Like a prop from a fairytale.
Lately, I’ve been shopping in the new small hardware stores opening around the inner city - like Silvan, Jem & Fix, and Harald Nyborg. Their gardening sections are sparse but carefully curated, as if to accommodate both the needs and desires of the urban shopper (me). The rose shear above is a replica from one of these stores, an ideal representative if you ask me - functional, yes, but also strangely alluring, like a relic rather than a mere tool.
Out in the sprawling country malls, the gardening sections tend to present a far more pragmatic lineup of tools, with campaigns often ambivalently balancing human recreation with high-efficiency environmental control. This must, of course, be related to larger gardens, with a higher demand for efficient management. And so, the stores - more like warehouses - where advanced trimmers, pest control products, and weed killers gain more visibility, shaping the narrative of gardening as a practice.
Lawnmower (2024). Digital print on canvas, stretch-wrapped.
An instrumental part of this high-efficiency gardening culture has become the robotic lawnmower. This little, turtle-like robot is perhaps the most transformative innovation in modern gardening . Its ability to cover vast areas with advanced monitoring and mechanical precision makes it more than just a tool - it dominates the space. Its quiet, creeping motion transforms not only the vegetation but also the garden as an scene.
I often find that the robotic lawnmower completely steals the show - or at least my attention. Designed to smoothly maintain aesthetic order, it inevitably becomes part of the landscape itself, blurring the boundaries between the garden as a divine piece of work and the ongoing work of its upkeep. Much of the promotional imagery for robotic lawnmowers captures this interplay so well - perspectivally lowered in a bokeh close-up, fully immersing the viewer via its operation.
It may seem obvious - the influence of robotic lawnmowers and other semi-autonomous systems in the garden of 2025. Yet these hybrids are rarely credited as more than mere servants in the service of pristine garden ideals. Recognizing them as native to the contemporary garden, shaped by industry-driven aesthetics, allows the garden to evolve into a much richer concept - a dynamic environment for ongoing exchange between humans, technology, and ecology.
Laurits Honoré Rønne
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