One Thousand Pictures

— Shenzhen, China

The garden is made of the basic elements worked by man to form two living rooms. The path between takes visitors deep into the earth past stacked stone that is the remnants of a quarry. Everything that creates the garden is of the earth. A re-arrangement of ancient stone to create a space of order and beauty whilst causing minimal disruption to the forest we work within.

The garden will explore the colour green and the immense variety of leaf and textural layers that create a forest with flowers as delicate moments discovered within the impenetrable wilderness.

The garden aims to create a space that pulls the visitor away from an urban life into the solitude of nature. Rather than trees that grow as specimens, the garden takes its inspiration from the natural world where trees grow as families woven together, imperfect as individuals but complete when the many becomes one.

The hard elements fit together like building blocks of quarried stone. Clean cut to create form but retaining the natural edges to reveal both control and restraint.

The garden is a tapestry of moments, each beautiful and capturable, but it's completeness is uncapturable by one single picture.

Each step you take around the space reveals another moment and composition. This concept focusses around the difference between real life experience and that that can be held and felt within a lens or a digital world. A complexity that forms a oneness and simplicity. Life as the experience of a moment.

"Our garden is currently being constructed in the Shenzhen Botanical Gardens. Each morning I wake to see progress and watch the drawings and models come to life. Had history taken a different course I would be there now preparing to plant the Forest Garden. When I selected these pieces of stone in a quarry in the hills of China, COVID had already began to change the World, although we didn't know it. I am in awe of the magic of technology that has allowed us to continue this project on the other side of the World, through lockdowns, and being unable to travel. So grateful to Hongyue & Michael Zhao for the massive task of bringing this to life for us! Watch this space..."

Xanthe White, 27th February 2021

Hongyue 1000 Pictures Construction 03 01 21 3 web

Hongyue 1000 Pictures Construction 03 01 21 2 web

Hongyue 1000 Pictures Construction 03 01 21 1 web

Project Details

Key Plants

Acacia podalyriifolia, Acorus calamus, Alocasia macrorrhiza, Asplenium nidus, Callistemon rigidus, Ceiba speciosa, Cordyline fruticosa, Cyrtogonellum fraxinellum, Dracaena marginata, Hoya carnosa, Iresine herbstii, Mangifera indica, Melaleuca alternifolia, Monstera deliciosa, Nephrolepis biserrata, Phoenix roebelenii, Pellaea rotundifolia (Tarawera), Phormium tenax (Harakeke), Pilea glauca, Schefflera actinophylla, Sedum sarmentosum, Thevetia peruviana, Viola hederacea,