An exchange of turf between West Wales and East London
In 1983, land artist David Nash transplanted a piece of rough North Wales countryside (8 m turf circle) into the lawn of the Serpentine Gallery as part of The British Sculpture show. He took the pristine circle of London grass back to Wales where he continued to mow it for several years. He was bringing a bit of the rural environment to the city and vice versa. He called it ‘Sod Swap’. A botanist counted 27 species in the Welsh turf and 3 species in the London turf.
In 2024, with David Nash’s support, Perry transplanted a circle of wildflower meadow from an East London Park into a sheep grazed field in West Wales. The Welsh ‘sheep mown’ turf went to East London (Springfield Park) where it was mown regularly. He called it ‘Reverse Sod Swap’. Botanists counted 39 species in the Hackney turf in Wales, whilst only 4 species were visible in the Welsh turf in London. Mike took a piece of inner city ‘wildness’ to the countryside and brought a piece of farmed countryside to the inner city. He wanted to compare the impacts of enlightened ‘wilding’ of our inner city parks with the degrading impacts of monoculture farming in our National Parks, areas of so called ‘Outstanding Natural Beauty’.
To see how it is progressing see here.
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