Tatton Park Biennial: Sited Commissions
Jacques Nimki’s greenhouse is the florilegium of its title: sited in April as a steel and glass shell, the work grows as the months progress, with new plants, works, people and debris building an idiosyncratic anthology unique to time and place.
This act of flower gathering includes the structure as sculptural form – not in keeping with the picturesque Mercury Pool it sits too close to, the building intrudes into the landscape, sidling in with self-conscious glee. Within, the artist’s collection of weeds taken from the grounds outside the formal gardens is lovingly nurtured in a hothouse environment it does not like, sharing space with paint, junk shop splatter and people.
Open to all, the greenhouse also plays host to other artists; and a new, ‘indie’ biennial is born: in May, Savage stages The Destructors, a sound work with broken glass amplified across the gardens, on the hour and throughout the day. In June, Steve Rushton reads and shows his poetry and in July, Jonathan Swain’s The Smoker releases coloured smoke from the greenhouse and into the formal gardens. In August, Jacques Nimki opens his Greenhouse Sale, extending an opportunity to visitors to sample and purchase the intoxicating array of wares made during his time at Tatton.
When I first began to collect weeds, I used a Psion 5mx as a way of recording the types of plants that I found in urban centres. Each entry consisted of a variety of information that related directly to the plant.
From the outset, my aim was to build a database that would only be usable for a limited period and would eventually become unworkable; I had no plan or idea as to how I would achieve this.
At the outset, I avoided using any Latin, Scientific or Botanical terms; plants were listed using only their common names. In addition the information was stored haphazardly and written in casual shorthand, as information was added from different cities and then removed (once projects were completed) there was always an amount of information debris left behind. Local tales, folklore added a fictional element, boundaries between categories such as medicinal, magical and edible became blurred, and information was repeated and contradictory. Eventually the density of information made the database unbearably annoying, and finally when I realised that no part was more important or relevant than the next, I put it away. I no longer use it, it serves no purpose, and it never did.
I don’t care if there are 72 species of Dandelions or if there are 73, I just want to eat them.
Jacques Nimki
Biography
Jacques Nimki works from the landscape, using plants as his inspiration. In the past ten years he has concentrated on intricate observational drawings and paintings of weeds & discarded flowers found in urban environment, copied from illustrations and plant guides. His research involves walking areas to collect ‘weeds’ for observational work, pressing, processing and seed collecting. This information is later combined to make a variety of studio-based and project based installations that searches for beauty in the overlooked and unconsidered.
He describes his works as ‘florilegiums’ a word that literally means ’flower book’, a category of books from the seventeenth century where images were more significant than text. Belonging to a culture of collecting based on curiosity, novelty, rarity and beauty rather than scientific investigation. Nimki’s practice imitates this ideal, yet his carefully constructed works of a given area over a particular timescale, are of plants that we would usually regard as worthless and insignificant.
Jacques Nimki was born in Mauritius. Educated at Chelsea School of Art and the Royal Academy Recent solo shows include Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, The Approach, London, Fabrica, Brighton, The Camden Arts Centre, London. Group exhibitions include Biennale Cuvee, Austria, Still Life Sharjah Biennial U.A.E, and Art of the Garden, Tate Britain. His work can be found in the Arts Council of England collection and in numerous private collections