The Gerrard Winstanley Radical Gardening Space, Reclamation Mobile Field Centre and Weather Station, (European Chapter). 2000
A custom made bike trailer that, when in transit, becomes a compact, weatherproof, lockable unit; roadworthy and user-friendly. It is designed to travel between allotments, parks, playgrounds, schools and squares, where it is parked, quickly assembled and made ready for action.
When stationary the trailer opens to reveal a small photocopier, a library of books available for photocopying and a small weather station. On top is a solar panel which harvests solar energy while the trailer is outside. (A full battery is enough energy to make one copy.)
The library consists of a unique collection of books on DIY culture, permaculture, urban gardening, alt/energy systems, utopias and issues of gentrification. The bike is named after Gerrard Winstanley, the leader and spokesperson for "the Diggers", a group of 17th Century indigent peasants who tried to defy the enclosure of common land by private interests: occupying it en masse, digging it up and cultivating it for food.
Exhibited
The Gift: Building a Collection for the Queens Museum of Art, Queens Museum, Queens, New York, USA. 2005
Down the Garden Path: Artists Gardens since 1960, Queens Museum, Queens, New York, USA. 2005
The Cruel Dialectic: Decay and Opportunity, American Fine Arts, Co. NYC, New York, USA. 1999