RAC Sculpture Garden: Laura Miracle and Mark Parslow: Bouquet Garni and a Sandwich

The Riverside Arts Center’s Freeark Gallery and Sculpture Garden is pleased to announce our newest installation for the Sculpture Garden, on view through mid-September 2017.

In this collaboration, Mark Parslow and Laura Miracle explore the potential of reclaimed building materials for creating public spaces for exploration and contemplation. Named for its combination of herbs and edible plantings, ‘Bouquet Garni and a Sandwich’ is an invitation to reflect on the role of the senses in experiencing both time and place.

The materials used in ‘Bouquet Garni and a Sandwich’ have humble beginnings: a demolished home in Evanston; a torn-down bowling alley. These materials show their history through their patina: nail holes, layers of adhesive and wax, the stamp of the lumberyard.

The raised beds in ‘Bouquet Garni and a Sandwich’, with their various plantings of edibles and herbs, are meant to be an ongoing source of cuttings for Art Center visitors, adding taste to the senses that are engaged in this work. The plantings also serve as a screen that will guide views both in and out of the space, highlighting the potential of the bench to be both a place for restful seeing and an object of playful looking.