The artist

Dr Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is just one of the artists who has been commissioned by the Eden Project to provoke, captivate and inspire. Her forthcoming creation is a dynamic and blooming artwork using emergent technologies and a pollinator’s perspective. She tells us about the creative process.

"It’s been a dream of mine to work with the Eden Project. I first visited some 20 years ago, long before I started doing what I do now, and was blown away by the scale and ambition. My work explores our difficult relationships with nature and technology and this is the first time I’ve been able to experiment beyond the gallery, working in and with nature itself. 

As I developed my proposal for the pollinator commission, I discovered more about Eden’s mission to invoke awe and connection with nature in its visitors, with a sense of jeopardy at the crisis facing our natural world. But it was the last two parts of the mission that really inspired the project: “eliciting a sense of hope and agency”.  

The Eden team have been incredibly open to the challenge of thinking about what a garden is and who it’s for. I was keen to work with Eden so I could collaborate with its experts, not just make something that would land on the site. Finding a common language between horticulture, pollination, string theory physics (our algorithm creator), web development, curation, art, and graphic design to bring this thing to life has made for some brilliant meetings! 

Part of the project is that we give the public the tool to create their own artwork for pollinators online or – if they can – plant it in the ground and care for it. Art doesn’t need to be useful, but it can be transformative. An artwork won’t save pollinators, but I hope it's a way to deepen our connection with them." 

Portrait image credit: Nathalie Théry