Vista

Vista plays with the idea of the enclosed garden as being isolated from evil, crime, fear, envy and the wants that exist outside the safety of the walled and secure enclave. Vista references the spread of gated communities in Britain and the level of fear that exceeds the statistical occurrence of crime.

The outline of a mountainous landscape is etched on a brass plaque. Positioned facing the wall, the plaque refers to an imagined rather than actual view of a future event or situation, and looks to what might lie beyond the gates and walls of the garden.

The 'landscape' has been determined by the responses to questions on imagined fears, gathered from residents of a selection of gated communities in London. Each person interviewed was asked to name five fears and to number them in strength from 1-10. These collated results determined the height of each fear peak in the etched landscape as well as how near or distant they are.

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In those days there was no snake, there was no scorpion, no hyena,

There was no lion, there was no wild dog, no wolf.

There was no fear, no terror

Man had no rival

(Sumerian poem, pre 1500 BC, in reference to the Garden of Eden)