Today I was invited to a VIP invite at Burghley House to look at a recent art installation from Graphic Rewilding duo Lee Baker & Catherine Borowski. After the rain dispersed from this morning it was nice to see that Burghley was soaked in some sunshine as we arrived for the presentation. Each piece draws inspiration from items around the gardens and inside Burghley itself from the artworks on show.
I spoke with Artist Lee Baker about the installation.
Q. When I saw you doing the presentation, I realised it was solely you who was doing the artwork not the both of you, is that correct?
Yes, I do the artwork, but it is both of us in so many respects. That’s why we called it Graphic Rewilding, not just Lee Baker and Catherine Borowski, because it’s very much a team effort. It’s inspired, they are my drawings but Catherine is the brains of the operation. Catherine is pushing it out there along with the production and everything to do with making it happen.
Q. The flags echo the beauty of flowers. Are they hand painted?
No, they are hand drawn initially and then they are blown up from drawings and created into the flags.
Q. The flowers are beautiful, I had a look online at your website and they’re all amazing colours and your stunning around the UK and even in China. I was going to ask, who came up with the idea, but obviously, it was you. So, where did the idea flourish from for flowers?
Well, you know, it’s a weird story. I’ve been making all kinds of art. I’ll say, for the purpose of this art that’s very inspired by Japanese culture and I was always very excited by it first of all, when I was young, by anime and mango and that side of things. Later on, I became more interested in the history of Japanese art. The Japanese have a very particular view of nature, and I was very drawn to that. I don’t know why, or at least I couldn’t understand why.
Given that I am not one for going for long walks in nature what I found was that I really responded to nature seen through that lens, through the human lens. Then it was weird; about 10 years ago, I had a bit of a moment in life where I just got really depressed and I didn’t want to get out of bed. It was really sad and I was really sad. The only thing that made me feel better was drawing flowers. It just seemed to grow from there. However, it’s been a very private thing.
I actually made my money from being a music composer. I wrote music for years and my art was always very private and I’d given up showing my art, but then it was Catherine that said, “look, these flowers are beautiful. You know, we’re doing all these public art projects with other artists and curating these works, why don’t we put yours in the mix and see if someone likes it?” I put them in and immediately people were like, “Oh”, and “Can we have that?” which was surprising but fabulous.
We realised that this had an effect and then I started really researching into why. Why are flowers so effective? I looked into the science behind it and it’s gone from strength to strength.
Q. It makes you smile, I’d say it’s the beauty and the colour and just the fact that it is nature. So you have to wonder at nature as to how it makes something that’s that pretty and perfect, so to speak, although they’re not perfect, presumably.
That is what I wanted to know for me, personally. That’s a very Japanese idea about the imperfection. But again, why? It was like yes, yes, yes, they make us happy, but again, it’s like going back to our ancestors time. What do flowers represent? Flowers often represent the prospect of food and the prospect of being able to survive. When we look at a landscape, if we look at this landscape over here (he points to the Burghley grounds), what you see are trees, you see water, you see hills. The water is telling you you’re going to be able to drink and you’re going to be able to survive. The trees are telling you you could either protect yourself from the sun or escape up them if an animal is coming after you, the hills tell you that there’s something over the hill that you might be able to discover. It’s all these things that Neolithic man was using to survive that we see as just beautiful because it’s embedded in our brains. We don’t need it anymore, we don’t need that protection. But, it still registers as something lovely. So that’s what I got interested in.
I give a talk called ‘Hack your happiness’ in 20 minutes and it’s the idea of a twenty minute walk in nature. It makes you happy, and it’s been proven that just images of nature make you happy, that’s the why behind it.
Q. Have you done any other artwork before, besides flowers?
Oh yes, I was making lots of different art, but again often related to pop art and to cartoonery, I was very inspired by popart of the 60s.
Q. So is that where all the bright colours come from? Why they are like this – very, very simplistic, but in a very detailed way.
It always really, really excited me by using very bold colours, they are kind of almost quite minimalist in a way, like expanses of colour, working with that type of composition. But it’s weird; up until I had started working with flowers, I felt there was not much meaning in my work. It was just me being aesthetically excited by a certain composition and thinking; I’m going to do that, and I’m going to add meaning afterwards. But I felt like the flowers made it so I was able to respond from the beginning.
Going back to the 1980s I was producing installations, all kinds of stuff, very influenced by urban landscapes and that’s how it relates to this; in that I used to go into derelict buildings and paint up the walls to brighten it up. But in kind of my own bonkers way and I suppose that’s how this relates to this. I’ve always been interested in public art. It didn’t matter what I did, it was always in a public space. It wasn’t ever really interesting being presented in galleries.
Q. What is the best response you’ve had?
I think probably the best response was when we did a piece in a kind of building site and it was a space that was about 30 by 40 and alongside one of the busiest roads in London. It was awful looking. Everyone who lived in the area had no greens, there were not even window boxes, nothing, no one had any green space at all, and we made this kind of fake garden, if you could describe it like that. I remember we cut the ribbon to open it and it was ridiculous as the people were immediately having picnics on this space and it wasn’t even real flowers!
It showed me that people crave recreational space that feels at least a bit like nature, even if it isn’t. It was in response to the pleasure gardens, that they used to have in the Georgian times in the area, so we wanted to make our own response. We created a beautiful space called The Pleasure Garden, in Kensington.
Q. Do you teach your skills to others?
I have done workshops, although not so much lately. I have travelled to Japan a lot and I’ve learned Japanese brushing, so I do Japanese ink brush workshops. I really enjoy them, but there’s less time these days to do them.
Q. What next?
Blimey. That’s a good one. We have a big project in Berlin, where the wall came down. They have since built a huge kind of shopping centre development there, but it’s quite gray in nature. They’re asking artists to come and take over some space. So, we’re creating some huge glass windows. They are massive at around 15 metres tall.
We also have the next show in May which is at New York Botanical Gardens. We’re doing two big sculptures as part of a big exhibition with reference to Van Gogh. I love Van Gogh’s work, he himself was influenced by Japan as well and I really love his work. We’ve had the opportunity to do two big pieces of art inspired by him.
I love their art installation at Houston, Texas which goes a step further with cut-out flowers which are, in my opinion, more amazing than these. Grand, colourful, bright and inviting. If only to post around Peterborough to brighten it up. (I can wish)
You can view Graphic Rewilding (facebook) art flags for yourself now at Burghley until 21st April 2025, you’ll find them in the south gardens set out as a promenade in front of the magnificent facade of Burghley House.
After 26th April they will be moved into the Sculpture Garden for the summer season for more people to enjoy. www.burghley.co.uk/events/botanic-tapestry
