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 was bringing a bit of rough countryside to the city. He took the pristine circle of London grass back to Wales where he continued to mow it for several years. 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 has transplanted a circle of wildflower meadow from an East London Park into a West Wales sheep grazed field. The Welsh ‘sheep mown’ turf has gone to East London (Springfield Park) where it will be mowed regularly. He’s called it ‘Reverse Sod Swap’. Mike is taking a piece of inner city ‘wildness’ to the countryside and bringing a piece of farmed countryside to the inner city. Perry wants to highlight 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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