Morpheus- Manchester Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show
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Project Year
2019
Client
RHS Chelsea Flower Show
This 3D site specific exterior sculpture was displayed in the 2019 RHS Chelsea Flower Show in pride of place within the Manchester Garden
The Manchester Garden exhibited in the Space to grow category and offered a fresh perspective on post- industrial cities highlighting the reinvention of Greater Manchester, its resilience and its adaptability.
Manchester Garden offers a new perspective on post industrial cities, championing green spaces and honouring sustainability. The garden incorporates inspiring and considered ideas on its themes.
In the design stage of Morpheus cultural, historical and environmental aspects were all considered. Morpheus spans the planted narrative areas showcasing a journey telling the story of Cottonopolis to the home of the Graphene.
Morpheus which is derived from the Ancient Greek: μορφή meaning ‘form, shape’ a god associated with sleep and dreams. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses he is the son of Sleep, who appears in dreams in human form. From the medieval period, the name began to stand more generally for the god of dreams, or of sleep.
Handcrafted elements and technological advancements were both taken into consideration when making this sculpture.
Morpheus starts at the back corner of the garden which represents the start of the cotton industry in Manchester, it then begins to flow upwards and then a gentle waving sweep which is representative of the textiles and fabric the cotton was used for, it then gently creeps down under the paving as if it’s gone to sleep/dreaming, it then appears out of the paving which represents the urban landscape and grows out of the ground and wraps around the landscape and the built environment morphing into the paving and back out to a journey which awaits which is representative of graphene.
The bespoke site specific sculpture starts at the back corner of the garden- this is to represent the start of the cotton industry within Manchester. It then continues to flow upwards and vertically and then flourishes with a gentle waving sweep.
Handcrafted elements and technological advancements were both taken into consideration when making this sculpture. It was important to merge the two as is the principles and ethos of Lazerian.
The form was created by drawing a sweeping surface that interacted with the different elements of the garden. Once the overall surface was refined this was then split up into a grid structure which is representative of the molecular structure of Cotton and Graphene, a hexagonal grid. After the hexagonal network was created, each hexagon was redrawn out to have no right angles or straight lines and have around 30% negative space to allow plating to integrate with the piece over time. The pieces were then split up into individual components and put together by hand, building tension and fluidity throughout the piece.The components are made from carbon fibre, hand cut and painted in a high end 2k finish
