Public Art in London: Tony Heywood - A Human Rights greenhouse

Political art in glass form

To mark the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) signing 76 years ago, artist Tony Heywood has created a ‘human rights greenhouse’ with the thirty articles of the UDHR emblazoned on it. This one is his creation, though for past projects he has worked as part of the artist duo Heywood & Condie.

Photo: Igor Emmerich

How did the idea of creating art greenhouses come about?

To a gardener, this architectural glass structure is the equivalent of a temple, a building that facilitates rituals of nurture and care — most of my horticultural installations have used living plants. This latest greenhouse work has perhaps evolved from my earlier gallery pieces; smaller, horticultural "Bell Jar" works which contain artificial flowers, sculpted rock, bricolage and detritus gathered at specific sites in the UK to create abstract sculptural portraits of places I call ‘micro-landscapes’.

My artistic practice explores how we have become increasingly distanced from the natural world. My installations, perhaps an extension of land art, have often parodied the glamorisation and digitisation of nature in the media by combining real plants within sculptural installations that have a pop art aesthetic.

The living plants and insect life which slowly evolve and grow over the sculptures will require nurture and care from future custodians. This built-in level of ongoing responsibility is integral to the work – it ensures that we participate with it and care for it. This grounds us and draws our attention to the non-human or more-than-human aspect of these horticultural Installations. This is in contrast to most artworks, which are often fixed, final and complete, ready for consumption.

Below the paywall:

• How this compares to the previous greenhouse on this site

• The significance of the boulders inside

• How to watch a video of the reading of the UHDR by Miriam Margolyes