Routine Maintenance

2005-ongoing

Collaboration Tsinghua University Department of Landscape Architecture, Xu Xiaoqing, Zhang Jingni, Rhode Island School of Design Department of Landscape Architecture, George Harvey, Wa Guo, Rhode Island School of Design Bayard Ewing Gallery, Lijiang Studio, Japan-US Friendship Commission, US National Arboretum

Trees 1 planted, hundreds drawn and photographed

ROUTINE MAINTENANCE amplifies everyday acts of caring for plants into visually compelling landscapes that will perpetuate these practices in the face of cultural globalization. It is also hoped that the performance of making the landscape more visible will assist in the preservation of local culture.

Landscapes are routinely maintained in order to cultivate more productive soils, forests, plantations, orchards,and field crops. The practice of maintenance requires knowledge that is locally derived -and often passed through generations.

The exhibition of drawings and photographs by Ron Henderson at Rhode Island School of Design’s Bayard Ewing Gallery records these tree specimens. Most of the photographs were from Beijing where techniques that create warmer microclimates for tender plants - such as the peony microshelter, or that protect from the dessicating winter winds - such as the pine tree windbreaks, are employed in order to give new plants a few seasons to establish.