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Garden Images James Winnett 30th July - 22nd August, 2009 Closed door exhibition 35 George Steet, Oxford, OX1 2AY. Formerly Garden Images Installed to coincide with Modern Art Oxford's yard party, the enticing, site-specific installation by Oxford based artist James Winnett transforms an otherwiese empty shop space. Frequently constructing his artwork from the familiar and the historical; cultural artefacts, souvenirs, Winnett collects and manipulates informants of place and identity in order to offer the viewer an alternative perspective. In his site-specific installation, Garden Images, Winnett obscures the windows offering the un-expecting shopper a new perspective of an empty shop on the busy George Street in Oxford city centre. Winnett’s new work draws upon the shop’s previous name transforming the space through his artistic exploration of the notion of ‘the garden;’ in doing so taking inspiration from the way in which society manipulates, contains and represents nature through a personal selective process, displacing the wild and creating hybrid species. Through his practice Winnett questions the value that we attach to beauty and possessions making links between commercialisation and mass production. He comments; “I seek to play with the sense of anticipation towards what is happening… I’m interested in disconnection; how both gardens, and images of landscapes become caricatures of nature, of real life wildernesses which themselves may no longer exist; how our relationship to the natural world becomes increasingly mediated through the interface of the image and the theatre of the garden.” Special thanks to Oxford City Council