The installation, Vestergade 7 – named after the street number and name of the building block where it is located – features a vertical wall of living grass grown from seedlings and is described as a dislocated fragment of nature on the urban space: a gravity–defying artifact of the natural where the first shoots of living blades point to the potential of place to be renewed.
Vestergade 7 was produced using grass seed specially bred by Germinal for drought tolerance and a striking green colour. It is the latest installation from Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey who are acclaimed for their monumental works covering entire facades with grass. Their ‘perverse form of horticulture’ draws into question what is reasonably required in town and city landscapes subjected to the vagaries of a changing climate, and shows that it is possible to cover sheer inert city walls with a blanket of green, living material. As a temporal landmark, the installation artwork presents a shifting canvas of life which exposes the fragility of the plant to the elements: the seedling grass is never cut, instead remaining the first tender, vulnerable and tactile shoot which will eventually succumb to change and decay.
