Think pink. That is the visual message in an exhibit at the International Garden Festival, hosted by Les Jardins de Métis (Reford Gardens) in Grand-Métis, Que.
One of this year’s exhibits, titled Pink Punch, created by New York-based designers Nicholas Croft and Michaela MacLeod, features a tree-wrapping technique used to protect trees from the elements and pests. In this vibrant take on the practice, pink latex rope is wound around the base of trees, spreading out onto the ground for several feet. The intention is to create a communal seating area. “Flourescent colour, standing against the natural browns and greens of the environment, draws visitors off the beaten path to a room in the forest, where a small cluster of trees are wrapped at their bases to become a pinkscape of communal seating,” explains Nicholas Croft on his website.
The colour pink is also used to separate the wilderness from the garden and, in a non-traditional way, to create a new garden typology.
Some 22 living exhibitions are on show at this year’s festival , which takes place until Sept. 28. Recognized internationally as a leading garden festival, the event has featured more than 110 exhibits since its inauguration in 2000, and it has welcomed more than 900,000 visitors. It has also hosted more than 200 designers from 15 countries to create and showcase cutting-edge, contemporary gardens.
Croft and MacLeod, who run a landscape architecture firm called Polymétis, enjoy projects that combine manual and digital techniques with natural and synthetic materials. At last year’s Nuit Blanche event, the duo presented a “v.2” version of the tree-wrapping installation with LED lights.
IMAGES via v2com, Louise Tanguay and designers.
