In 2018, I was commissioned by Dover District Council (DDC) to create an artist’s film resulting from my research into the history of Russell Gardens in Dover and its current use as a social space of work and recreation.

Watercress and Daffodils explores the parallels between the structural laying bare of Russell Gardens as it is about to undergo a major restoration project as part of Dover District Council’s Kearsney Parks project and the revelation of a personal story connected to Kearsney Court Gardens, of which Russell Gardens was once an integral part.

The commission was a great opportunity for me to continue my research into:

  • Gardens/Parks as: curated spaces, spaces of work, recreation, refuge and as shared spaces
  • Art as work, critique
  • Film as curated space, shared space, process of gathering, assembly and bringing together, and into
  • The embodied experience of space from different individual perspectives.

Links

The title of the video Watercress and Daffodils takes its name from the fact that the name Kearsney is derived from the French cressonnière, a place where watercress grows, the presence of daffodils at Kearsney Court gardens. Moreover, in 2013, a new daffodil was developed in his honour, the narcissus ‘Thomas H. Mawson’, in the Netherlands to celebrate the first 100 years of the Peace Palace at the Hague, the gardens of which were designed by Mawson.

The project  was delivered with Dover Arts Development (DAD) by the Kearsney Parks project, a DDC project with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund Parks for People programme. See more here.

There is a book to accompany the film with essays by Karen Jones (University of Kent), Charles Holland (Charles Holland Architects), Philip Hutton (Architect) Richard Taylor (artist), Louisa Love (artist) and haikus by Ben Hunt. Please contact me if you would like a copy.

This beautifully designed book is a wonderful addition to Clare Smith’s film of the same name. They are together an important legacy of the art in the park Kearsney interpreted project providing innovative and imaginative ways of engaging with Russell Gardens and the work of Thomas Mawson

Joanna Jones, Your Content Goes Here

I met with Karen Jones today and she gave me a copy of the Watercress & Daffodils booklet. I just wanted to drop you a note to say how brilliant I thought it was! I can’t wait to watch the video now…

Jon Winder, Your Content Goes Here

Wonderful

Philip Hutton

I absolutely loved the video. It was amazing and emotional for me to hear the voices of so many people that I worked with while developing the project and preparing the funding bid, especially Josie Harding, and Martin & Frankie, but many others too. It was great too to see present day use combined with voices from the past and I thought it was so exciting to hear new interpretations of the space, especially knowing that they are being shared more widely through the film. I particularly loved the shot of the submarine cruising on the lake!

Jon Winder, Your Content Goes Here
Thank you so very much – I watched it this afternoon and cried all over again.  I enjoyed it in March but this was even better and it is a wonderful end to an era of my life.  I don’t how much was due to edits you had made, or whether it was seeing it for the second time, but it felt much crisper and sharper.

I keep watching your film and keep laughing and crying.  More and more I can understand what you and Joanna – say about the circles.  There is so much geometry of all sorts.

Josie Harding

The film took us so gently on a physical journey through the garden space, a mental journey through its history but also on an emotional journey – as we descended the space of the garden we explored some of the depths of what gardens and parks mean in times of sadness.  This beautiful film worked on so many different levels and it has fundamentally shifted the way in which I am able to experience and value Russell Gardens as made and continuing to be made by us all.

Diana Baldwin