Recent Plants, potted plant and polaroid photo installation, Mercer Union Gallery, Toronto, 1980. Photo: Mercer Union
Recent Plants, detail, polaroid of potted plant in situ at Bau-xi Gallery, potted plant and polaroid photo installation, Mercer Union Gallery, Toronto, 1980.
Recent Plants, detail, polaroid of potted plant in situ at Carmen Lamana Gallery, potted plant and polaroid photo installation, Mercer Union Gallery, Toronto, 1980.
Recent Plants, detail, polaroid of potted plant in situ at Roberts Gallery, potted plant and polaroid photo installation, Mercer Union Gallery, Toronto, 1980.
Recent Plants, detail, polaroid of potted plant in situ at Nancy Poole Studio, potted plant and polaroid photo installation, Mercer Union Gallery, Toronto, 1980.
Recent Plants, detail, polaroid of potted plant in situ at Loranger Gallery, potted plant and polaroid photo installation, Mercer Union Gallery, Toronto, 1980.
Recent Plants, detail, polaroid of potted plant in situ at Isaacs Gallery, potted plant and polaroid photo installation, Mercer Union Gallery, Toronto, 1980.
Recent Plants, detail, polaroid of potted plant in situ at Gallery Moos, potted plant and polaroid photo installation, Mercer Union Gallery, Toronto, 1980.
Recent Plants, detail, polaroid of potted plant in situ at Ydessa Gallery, potted plant and polaroid photo installation, Mercer Union Gallery, Toronto, 1980.
Twelve Big Problems, wall painting; The Suit, paintings on canvas; Recent Plants, potted plant and polaroid photo installation, exhibition shot, Work of Four Decades, National Gallery of Canada (NGC), Ottawa, 2000. Photo: NGC, Clive Cretney
Finchwell Continued, wall painting installation; Recent Plants, potted plant and polaroid photo installation, exhibition shot, Work of Four Decades, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS), 2000. Photo: AGNS.
Recent Plants, exhibition detail, Garry Neill Kennedy: Photoworks, 1969-2011, Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen Art Gallery (LRCAG), Muncton, NB, 2012. Photo: LRCAG
Recent Plants, exhibition detail, Garry Neill Kennedy: Photoworks, 1969-2011, Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen Art Gallery (LRCAG), Muncton, NB, 2012. Photo: LRCAG
Recent Plants, printed matter detail, Garry Neill Kennedy: Photoworks, 1969-2011, Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen Art Gallery (LRCAG), Muncton, NB, 2012. Photo: LRCAG
Recent Plants, exhibition detail, Garry Neill Kennedy: Photoworks, 1969-2011, Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen Art Gallery (LRCAG), Muncton, NB, 2012. Photo: LRCAG
Recent Plants, exhibition detail, Garry Neill Kennedy: Photoworks, 1969-2011, PLATFORM Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts, Winnipeg, MB, 2013. Photo: PLATFORM
Recent Plants, exhibition detail, Garry Neill Kennedy: Photoworks, 1969-2011, PLATFORM Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts, Winnipeg, MB, 2013. Photo: PLATFORM
Recent Plants (1980)
In 1980, Kennedy exhibited Recent Plants at Mercer Union Gallery (Toronto). Curated by David MacWilliam, this installation consisted of potted plants on loan from the galleries of 15 Toronto art dealers staged alongside a series of polaroids of the plants in their original locations. Kennedy replaced the plants he borrowed with a note stating that they were on loan and could be viewed at Mercer Union for the duration of the exhibition.
At this time, it was common to have plants housed in art galleries, either rear reception or placed throughout the galleries as "decoration" alongside the art. Kennedy became interested in the tension between this decorative flora, not considered 'Art' in those spaces, and the art which was intentionally curated for show and sale there.
Recent Plants is part of Kennedy's investigations into the art gallery as an entity and the implications of everything that happens there, both their internal and public facing operations. These investigations include works like Revealing Locating (1979), "e" (1980), David Bellman Gallery Work: View from the Gallery Window (1981) and later works like CORRECTIONS (2012).
Recent Plants has been restaged nationally a number of times, including at The National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia during Kennedy’s retrospective in 2000, and with his touring exhibition Garry Neill Kennedy: Photoworks, 1969–2011 in 2012 and 2013.