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2012 - 2014
Dirt City : Dream City
Transitory Public Art Exhibition
July 2012 - Summer 2014
The Quarters, Edmonton, AB
This site provided an opportunity for residents, organizations and communities of the Quarters neighbourhood to have a place to plant in the garden and to relax in a collective area. The Quarters is on the eastern edge of downtown undergoing revitalization under The Quarters Downtown Plan provided by the City to Edmonton. The neighbourhood has a rich diversity of civil (police station), federal (law courts) and Chinese Community presence along with economic disparity present in the area.
The garden used biodegradable wattles, which are commonly used for irrigation, as the perimeter border for each garden bed. This material allowed for the curvature of the panoptic plan, written about by Michel Foucault in his text Discipline and Punishment. The Panopticon was designed to allow the observer in the center to have a clear sight of others who may or may not know they are being observed along the periphery.
Photo credit: courtesy of the artist and the Edmonton Arts Council