there, inside the garden - Floor Sheet

Seedling Art Space

"As the peers of emerging artists know, it is all to often the Brash Pack who draw first blood on the contemporary scene. Perhaps to his own detriment, Clinton Hayden has always shunned the transience of the bang for the searing reverberations of the visceral and intimate. In his work quiet things scream and continue to confound, long after shock fades." A.M.K.

'there, inside the garden' takes it's title and inspiration from a PJ Harvey song, and was developed from an initial idea suggested by the Hieronymus Bosch painting 'The Garden of Earthly Delights'. In this case, the garden is empty. Childhood fears of the adult bedroom and what happens inside have developed into ethereal, abstracted images that misrepresent themselves.

The room suggested a hiding place, from the garden in the title and the relationships between the two in the lyric. A makeshift bed for one, by the hearth, suggesting Seedling as a safe haven from the “…trouble taking place”, outside of the room/sanctuary and in the loveless empty space in the photographs - previously occupied by two, in which to reflect and recharge.

And he was walking in the garden
And he was walking in the night
And he was singing a sad love song
And he was praying for his life

And the stars came out around him
He was thinking of his sins
And he's looking at his song-bird
And he's looking at his wings

There, inside the garden
Came another with his lips
Said "won't you come and be my lover?"
"Let me give you a little kiss"

And he came knelt down before him
And fell upon his knees
"I will give you gold and mountains
If you stay a while with me"

And there was trouble
Taking place
Trouble
Taking place

There, inside the garden
They kissed and the sun rose
And he walked a little further
And he found he was alone

And the wind it gathered round him
He was thinking of his sins
And he's looking for his song-bird
He was looking for his wings

And there was trouble
Taking place
Trouble
Taking place


‘The Garden’ PJ Harvey Is This Desire 1998

‘there, inside the garden’ 2009
sheet, knots, Polaroids, cigarette butts
Ten framed 6x8 digital photographs
POA