A graduate of the Wimbledon School of Art (1980), London, Picker Fellowship (1981) from Kingston University, London, and holding an MFA (2010) from Transart Institute, Berlin, David Alesworth’s work, over the past decade, has been organised around an expanded vision of the garden as a ‘global forest’ that we are all a part of. The garden is his key metaphor with which to question humanity’s culturally specific relationships with the natural world and to better understand the notion of nature as a social problem. His own hybrid identity as a Pakistani National of white British ethnicity informs many aspects of his practice.

“Hortus Nocte – The Dark Garden” is about Alesworth’s relationship with the Garden and its many intricate layers. At the core of his artistic practice lies his engagements with horticultural history which continues to be his “research activity and the balance” to his time in the studio. The works included in the “dark garden” reflects the extensive, enriching experience of the artist through the land and cultures he has been a part of. According to Alesworth, the dark garden isn’t alluding to “negativity” but rather it is about “balance and change”. He sees the “dark garden” as “an eclipse in the reign of natural fecundity that is this earth, a dimming of the biosphere as the planet heats up and late capitalism eats everything it encounters”.

This body of work also draws from the parallels and differences in the gardens Alesworth has created over the years and his current “northern European seasonal garden”, with the inclusion of Sambucus nigra, black lace (the black Elder) – a plant that grows right outside his studio in Bristol, UK. He believes that culture grows from the “living ground” and it is through that he hopes to make “works of multi-layered complexity that continue to reveal themselves over many seasons”.

David Alesworth has extensively exhibited his work internationally and in Pakistan as well. In 2016, his work, “Hyde Park Kashan” was shortlisted for the V&A Jameel Prize. Over the years, Alesworth has worked with Goldsmiths College, Portsmouth University, Bristol School of Art, Plymouth College of Art, Beaconhouse National University (BNU), and Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS). He also holds several horticultural accomplishments such as being a Horticultural Consultant to Aga Khan Cultural Services.

The show remains open daily until Thursday, 2nd February 2023, from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM, excluding Sunday.

Source: The AZB