Jenna Hoyle

My work centres upon the manifestation of nature in the urban landscape. In juxtaposing urban and rural imagery, I want to combine the English countryside with the gritty urban realism of London. I encourage members of the public to engage with my practice through direct participation during art events, which are recorded on a live website. This website acts as a hub for three user-generated social networking sites to engage with as large an audience as possible. I want my work to be as accessible to the general public as it is to the exhibition-goer.
My interest in Nicolas Bourriaud’s notion of relational aesthetics has let me to concentrate on the development and process within my practice rather than a final product.
Because of this, I use photographs and films as documentation. However, the documentation is not the art work itself. The art emerges from a situation which includes the beholder.
My most recent project entitled ‘MetGrow’ involved office workers in Knightsbridge, London, engaging with a gardening event. On 20th March 2009, contributors ripped up and planted wildflower seed-infused Metro newspapers into individual pots, and placed them in a purpose-built greenhouse installation.
The Metro newspaper served as a metaphor for modern urban living which was juxtaposed by the wildflower seeds which best bring to mind the uncultivated English Countryside. I wanted to comment on the ubiquitous disposability of the Metro Newspaper through these pieces. Discarding a copy of MetGrow would generate a wildflower garden in the centre of London’s urban landscape.
Having spent three months growing within the greenhouse installation on the office roof terrace overlooking Harrods, the ‘MetGrow’ wildflowers have now formed a permanent garden which will serve as a lasting reminder that nature will always reveal itself even through the most unlikely of circumstances.