orwellian garden - bloomsbury festival 2013
Alex Beeching was funded by Arts Council UK to create a new outdoor sculpture / performance commission as part of the Bloomsbury Festival 2013.
Alex's vision was to take the form of a pop-up Ministry of Truth office covered in a living carpet of plants, succulents, ferns and so forth, thereby subverting the pomposity and tyranny of the office".
Open To Create... worked with Alex to develop his new work through inputting into his overall planning schedule, linking him up to plant suppliers and working up a marketing strategy to raise the profile of the 'happening' during festival in October 2013..
We took the time to get to know Alex and his vision for the piece, work out the best social and offline platforms to release news and content about the work.
Getting heard when SAS took the time to meet with the Garden team well before the festival to interview Alex, record a podcast of the conversation helped spread the word via Instagram and Twitter.
Feedback from project participants on the piece's impact;
“What a brilliant surprise - how did he come up with such a unique idea?”
“The curtain came down yesterday on The Orwellian Garden: the culmination of 10 months' hard slog. That it proved so successful is very gratifying. It brought smiles to thousands of festival goers, lending some much-needed greenery to Senate House's car park. To the growing chorus of voice calling for something permanent to the site may I add my own. My thanks to all those who took part.”
"Tiny baby steps of greening the city... come along & skip through the gerberas & dance to the gramaphone..."
"@theorwelliangarden Bloomsbury Festival #fab #art"
"A big vote of thanks to creative guru @annabsexton @opentocreate for help @OrwellianGarden"
Key Facts:
Client: Alex Beeching is a much sought after visual artist and concept designer whose clients include Zizzi, Cheltenham Festivals and Bloomsbury Festival.
Venue: Senate House, UCL, London
When: 19 - 20th October 2013
Find out more about Alex Beeching's range of work