Markus Vater – The Secret Garden Project Artist in Residence

1 November 2011 - 30 April 2012

Markus Vater will create a series of drawings, animations and a publication that are each inspired by the Secret Garden Project commissions and the themes they touch upon. He will weave an illustrated fairytale that makes connections between the different works, and will keep the Secret Garden Project growing over the winter months in his unique, humorous style. The drawings and animations will be published online, through our newsletters and website, as well as via printed postcards, posters and a book.

“Plants are part of our mythological heritage. They feature in fairytales and stories. Old and modern, based on their chemical properties, their meaning as food, their function as habitat for humans and animals. Plants are given meaning through their context and our history with them. Profound contact with plants are now existing for most people in urban environments only in a mediated form brought to us through stories (movies) or supermarkets. I see my function in the Secret Garden Project as helping to remember and rethread where the myths come from and how they excite us; what our surprising relationships with plants were and are.”   Markus Vater, November 2011

Markus will also develop a series of events to engage different audiences in the project. More information about these coming soon.

Markus Vater is an artist who lives and works in London.  Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2000 he has had solo exhibitions at SITE, Sies + Hoeke Galerie, Escale, Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf and Vilma Gold, London. As well as numerous group exhibitions in London including Timothy Taylor Gallery, Essor, London Print Studio and the Drawing Room Gallery.

Markus Vater is the second Secret Garden Project Artist in Residence. See more information about the first residency here.

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Markus has created a very special animation entitled 'The Secret Garden'. Click here to view.

You can see a selection of Markus' drawings for the Secret Garden Project on the right of this page.

In the Wood, Saturday 3 March
In the Wood was a 'sculptural mind experiment happening' devised for the Secret Garden Project by Markus Vater. You can see images of this event on the right.