Bouffant Topiary, or: 7 “terrestrial activities of aliens,” Part V

Ken Smith here suggests possible topiary tactics for the landless and absurdly style-conscious urban dwellers to get a leg up on their fashionable rivals. Says the landscape architect: “Hair design and garden design have similarities. They are both organic, grow and are manipulated. They have to do with style, fashion and pretense.” So quite possibly a trip now to Alexander McQueen also merits a stop at Home Depot afterwards.


(Ken Smith, “Bouffant Topiary,” Hair Gardens, Max Fish Gallery, 1998. Photomontage.)


(Ken Smith, “Chest Hair Maze,” Hair Gardens, Max Fish Gallery, 1998. Photomontage.)

Of course, these photomontages hint at even more provocative acts of body modification: the self-mutilation of actual living tissues as spatialized in the Transgenic Zoo and the Brave New Edible Estates. Michael Jackson as a legitimate landscape concern, made more so by domiciling in a region undergoing rapid and monumental terraforming.

(Much thanks go to דוד בן יהכין for the images.)

(The title of this seemingly forgotten series comes from a comment at Le Fils de Shamgar, precisely and beautifully describing Pruned.)