Ackroyd and Harvey are creators of vertical grass art.

Ackroyd & Harvey have created their most ambitious public artwork, FlyTower, on the National Theatre’s Lyttleton flytower. FlyTower sees the artists working directly on the exterior of one of London’s landmarks, transforming this iconic building into a living artwork of massive proportions.

Below you can find links to the National Theatre website as well as to the Radio 4 Documentary on Ackroyd & Harvey’s work, focussing on FlyTower (broadcast on Thursday 17 May).

Commissioned by the National Theatre and sponsored by Bloomberg.

DILSTON GROVE
2003

Working with sound artist and composer Graeme Miller, Ackroyd & Harvey temporarily transformed the unique site of Dilston Grove, a de-consecrated and now derelict church in Bermondsey, into a verdant green chamber of living grass.

Dilston Grove (formerly known as Clare College Mission Church) is located on the edge of Southwark Park and was the first concrete church to be built in this country. Designed in an early Italian style, the austere exterior gave way to a dramatic and compelling interior which over a three week period, had life literally drawn back into its very fabric through the interplay of light, sound and growth.Through the application of clay, germinating grass seed, water and natural light the boundary between growth and decay, reverie and renewal was exposed within this repository of spiritual memory. The artists regarded the architectural structure as in some sense being inert, brooding and boarded up, no longer functioning in the community. Bringing memory to the surface, the living skin of grass literally drew life back within the fabric of the church. A momentary resurrection.

“We have been hoping to bring this proposed work to fruition since we first collaborated together on The Other Side in 1990. It was during the making of this work that we first discussed the derelict church as a potent site for a monumental artwork. After years of searching for a church in London we were specifically drawn to the deconsecrated religious site of the former Clare College Mission at Dilston Grove. We were curious about how the architectural space, the atmosphere, and the perceptions of people entering into it, would be affected by the application of our materials. Having worked with sound artist and composer Graeme Miller on a number of previous site-specific projects, we were also keen for him to develop a sound element integral to the resonance of the space and the artwork.
Artists’ statement October 2003

Former Clare College Mission Church, Bermondsey, London
Commissioned by LIFT and presented in association with Café Gallery Projects and Artsadmin. Sound composition Graeme Miller. Created with financial support from Arts Council England, London.

THE UNDERTAKING (L’ANTRE-PRISE)
1992

Presented by Les Arts Etonnants at le Palais de Chaillot, Paris, France. Funded by The French Ministry of Culture, Tourcoing la Creative

Sound composed by Graeme Miller and David Coulter

The second series of Les Arts Etonnants involving installations by Ackroyd and Harvey, Stephen Taylor Woodrow, Stiftung Blindenanstalt

Ackroyd and Harvey occupied a series of underground corridors and chambers beneath The National Theatre of the Palais du Chaillot, Paris, for a six week period in the summer of 1992. A closed metal door sealed the corridors from the warren of mined stone passageways laced underneath Paris, eventually connecting with the catacombs which houses thousands of skeletons from the early city’s graveyards.

Themes of growth, decay, death and transcendence were richly evoked through a series of dramatic installations in chambers leading off from the long, narrow grass passages. The audience moved through the planted passageways, down a series of steps into a flooded corridor with a grass stairway leading off it, up another flight of stairs into a narrow, ledged room with a gathering of ten figures cast entirely from roots of grass. The first chamber encountered was completely flooded, a solitary figure floating above it, visible only through the reflection of a mirror. The second chamber resembled a private library erupting with fungus and stacks of books in the process of sprouting grass. The third chamber was planted with a field of ripened barley, which was slowly being stripped away by thousands of locusts.

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Tags: Art