chronological → alphabetical alphabetical → chronological

5 Pieces of Artificial Turf, 2002
Kunstrasen, Schaumstoff / Astro turf, foam rubber
each 200 x 200 cm
Kunstsommer Wiesbaden

Turfpiece, 1997
Artificial turf inserted in a meadow
200 x 200 cm

5 Pieces of Artificial Turf, 2002
Kunstrasen, Schaumstoff / Astro turf, foam rubber
each 200 x 200 cm
Kunstsommer Wiesbaden

Turfpiece, 1997
Artificial turf inserted in a meadow
200 x 200 cm

5 Pieces of Artificial Turf

2002

Kunstsommer Wiesbaden 2002
Fluxus und die Folgen
Artificial turf inserted in a meadow
200 x 200 cm

5 Kunstrasenstücke (5 Pieces of Artificial Turf), 1997
Park „Warmer Damm“, Wiesbaden, Artificial turf, foam rubber, each 200 × 200 cm

A piece of turf measuring two by two meters is cut out of a meadow and replaced by artificial turf. In this context the artificial turf, which is usually placed on balconies and terraces to simulate nature, is experienced as purely synthetic.

Text: © Studio Karin Sander

Karin Sander literally takes Edouard Manet at his word, transposing him into the twenty-first century. Monet later retitled his 1863 work Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (The Luncheon on the Grass) La Partie Carrée (The Foursome). Sander had a piece of turf four meters in size removed from a lawn and replaced by an equally large piece of artificial turf, thus creating a paradox. For artificial turf usually simulates nature where none is to be found—on an indoor sports field, on a terrace, in a restaurant garden—but not where there is already real turf. Sander’s artificial turf thus embellishes nothing, hides nothing, doesn’t add to the optical quality of anything. It simply replaces something natural with something artificial. Scarcely perceptible, the newly created square nevertheless functions as a pedestal for exhibiting lightly clad people enjoying their leisure time. Though feigning nonchalance, they take care to stay within the limits this special piece of ground.

Text: Tanja Dückers (Translation Stephen Richards)