PINK is delighted to present The Sealed Garden, a new large-scale installation by Manchester based artist Harry Stevenson Miller. Made up of 82 hand painted panels constructed into a fence and Aedicula*, a fountain (designed and fabricated by the artist) and a marble relief of the Madonna and Child by Ernest Cole (b. 1890-1979); this new installation emerges as a hortus conclusus**, an enclosed garden welcoming a celebration of architectural space within the unoccupied floors of 86 Princess Street.

 

The Sealed Garden is an imaginative amalgamation of many descriptions of the same place. Akin to a mise-en-scène, the enclosed garden, with a fountain in its centre is a familiar setting. Many artists, poets and sages have visited its grounds and tended its flowers. It has been a recurring poetic image for millennia, appearing in a wide range of cultures, yet always in a similar form; manifesting as a shared experience for humanity. This installation draws on varied structures and settings described by Verlaine, Rainer Maria Rilke, Shakespeare, Longus (in Daphnis and Chloe), Virgil’s Eclogues and the Bible; unfolding a new ephemeral space that will contribute to this rich poetic history. 

 

‘Et in Arcadia Ego’***

 

The Sealed Garden runs from 11th December 2021 until 10th January 2022 at 86 Princess St, M1 6NG. The exhibition is open Thursday - Sunday 3-7pm (or by appointment where necessary) Due to the nature of the building, bookings are required for visits. Tickets are available via Eventbrite HERE.

 

With special thanks to SEESAW and 86 Princess Street for their continued support that has made PINK’s first season of activity possible. 

 

*Aedicula or “Small House” is a small structure used as a shrine.

 

**Hortus conclusus is a Latin term, meaning literally "enclosed garden", it has been applied as an emblematic attribute and a title of the Virgin Mary in Medieval and Renaissance poetry and art, first appearing in paintings and manuscript illuminations about 1330. Many paintings of the Annunciation have been set within an enclosed garden.

 

*** Et in Arcadia Ego; “Even in Arcadia, there am I”. The title of Poussin’s 1638 Painting of Daphnis’ tomb, described by Virgil in Eclogues V.