Before falling asleep, he says, he often mentally immerses himself in this world of sensation, envisioning his drawings and appraising them in his mind’s eye. When you plan a garden, you plan in time. Whereby image is the wrong term, because what Oudolf designs is a multi-layered, constantly changing experience. Each line stands for an image in three – no, four dimensions, defined by colours and shapes, moods, scents, even rustling noises. For Oudolf they are meaningful signs and symbols. A few squiggles in purple here, little dots of blue there, the pages are filled with enigmatic patterns, playfully inscribed and utterly abstract – for the layperson, at least. He sits at his desk, which is covered with colourful pens, sheets of transparent paper in front of him. If Oudolf is an artist at all, then he is one who dwells in the realm of ideas, a conceptual artist. Here in the isolation of this sparse natural landscape, shaped by precepts of industrial efficiency, the eternally buzzing art world seems very far away. Out here in Hummelo, a spot not far from the German-Dutch border where he has renovated a farmstead with his wife Anja, a herd of Black Pied cattle rests comfortably in the meadow outside his studio window, chewing their cud. Is society reflected herein as well? He is proud and a little surprised that someone like himself, a garden architect who for decades was only a big name in horticultural circles, now suddenly finds himself inundated with enquiries and praised as an avant-gardist by art and design magazines. And now, in Weil am Rhein, right next to the Design Museum of the furniture manufacturer Vitra, something has taken root that invites visitors to partake in an aesthetic experience all its own. For some time now, he has been a frequent presence on the art world circuit: he has designed exuberant gardens, especially for American museums for the gallery Hauser & Wirth in England, he orchestrated a command performance of perennials and grasses. Is that society, too, the crating of the green, the coffering of plants and soil? Oudolf is neither a sociologist nor a philosopher.
In recent years, such garden centres have also sold raised planting beds in the form of large wooden crates, in which vegetables supposedly grow even faster and with less effort. This is a typical statement by Piet Oudolf, uttered quite matter-of-factly, as if it were a truth obvious to everyone – to DIY store visitors, for example, when they are looking for a digitally controlled irrigation system or an assortment of colourful flowers for the balcony.
Can nature be art? A visit with the legendary landscape architect Piet Oudolf, who has planned gardens for many museums and recently created one for Vitra in Weil am Rhein.
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