Tidying up your garden? Bouquets of flowers going spare? IF: Milton Keynes International Festival is inviting donations of flowers and plant material to form part of a major new Festival artwork, The Place Between, in centre:mk.
IF: Milton Keynes International Festival, the city’s much-loved summer festival, is inviting donations of locally-gathered flowers and plant material to form part of a spectacular and thought-provoking installation, The Place Between, which will fill centre:mk’s Middleton Hall from 14 to 30 July as part of this year’s Festival.
Internationally-celebrated artist Rebecca Louise Law is known for creating beautiful vast artworks with natural materials. Preserved flowers – individually sewn and suspended – are the signature of her most recognised works across the globe. Commissioned by shopping destination centre:mk in collaboration with the Festival, this new installation in Middleton Hall will be created with the local and wider community supplementing Law’s existing collection with their contributions of flowers and foliage.
Anyone can get involved by donating flowers or plant material or by joining one of a series of daily flower-wiring sessions at centre:mk to help create the installation itself. Law will also be accepting donations of fresh flowers, seeds, cones and leaves in Middleton Hall from 22 June. In the meantime, anyone receiving a bunch of flowers or who finds themselves with flower arrangements left over from a wedding or celebration, or who is just tidying up their garden could bring them along, pre-dried or fresh, to become part of the installation.
From 22 June to 12 July in Middleton Hall, there will be free drop-in sessions between 10am and 5pm where members of the public can join in with the creation of the artwork. Supported by Law and locally-based artists, people will be guided through the process of wiring the flowers and plant material to create a huge, immersive hanging garden. Visitors can wander through the space whilst listening to a specially-commissioned soundscape from composer, Jason Singh.
Rebecca Louise Law says: “Involving local people and communities in my work is really important to me. As well as an opportunity to bring people together and to share our skills, it makes an artwork particular to a place which I find very special. The people and plant life of Milton Keynes are integral to this work. The Place Between captures the work of many local hands and the beautiful connections between humankind and plants.’
Anyone interested can find out more here https://ifmiltonkeynes.org/event/the-place-between-if2023 or by emailing the Festival’s producers at takepart@stables.org where they can also register their interest.
