Gayle Chong Kwan, Stellar Dentrite, Tatton Park Biennial, 2008
Stellar Dentrite’ is inspired by the particular sensitivity of the citrus market upon fluctuations in weather patterns. The work references global warming, climate change and our reliance on the global trade of foods as well as referencing the orangery as a place in which climates from other countries are constructed to allow the ‘exotic’ to thrive. The continuous wrap-around photographic fantastical landscape is made out of dried, fresh and frozen peel of citrus fruits.
Printed as a wrap on the lower half of the Orangery at Tatton Park, directly onto the window frames, facing outwards. The work is a fantastical landscape whose outline is based upon fluctuations in the global share price of citrus fruit, specifically in China, one of the developing markets and producers. The landscape features a mirror reverse at the centre, referencing a reversal of climate, with the frozen citrus landscape a reversed landscape, a mirror weather system, with seasons altered during the summer.’Stellar Dentrite’. The title refers to the branching instability which occurs to a growing snow crystal, ‘dendrite’ means branch or tree-like, referring to the complexity and interconnectedness of global food markets as well as the context of Tatton Park itself.
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