In Les Misérables (1862), Victor Hugo describes the ‘bastard countryside, somewhat ugly but bizarre, made up of two different natures’ which surrounds cities: ‘End of trees, beginning of roofs, end of grass, beginning of paving stones...’
A century and a half later, those same ambiguous non-places are what interests Lawrence James Bailey. Whereas in his earlier work he focussed on the border area between city and countryside and the rugged no man’s land that typifies this transitional zone, this summer he will be looking for the urban wilderness of Amsterdam. ‘The city is human territory, entirely designed and organized, and yet weeds still grow between the paving stones. I am searching for the often unnoticed places where culture and nature collide or merge into one another in a messy limbo.’
In July and August, Lawrence is transforming Galerie Bart into a research centre where he collects materials and arranges them in relation to one another, makes drawings and textile works and shows the results. A place that is a cross between a studio and an exhibition space, while also being the base from which he explores the city on his bicycle.