Suzanne Laidlaw

The original genetic garden was grown by G T Mendel the Austrian scientist who first created genetics as a discipline in the 1850s. This pea pod garden was recently recreated in Brno, Austria and imaginatively forms the basis for a painting series using photos of New Zealand gardens (notably by Gil Hanly). Genetics is a subversive science contrasting to the innocence of nature and the complexity of moral life. From Christchurch is included a liquefaction garden and ‘guerrilla gardens’ which are created by citizens illegally, often at night, in an attempt to beautify public spaces that have been ruined by the earthquakes