Oasis 1996

 

Oasis was an installation that utilized the garden plan from the Lindaraja Garden, one of the Alhambra’s courtyard gardens in Granada, Spain.  It utilized a new, American-made, synthetic carpet with a Persian motif alluding to early Persian carpet designs patterned on the fourfold paradise garden ground plan.  Oasis was placed outdoors in the walled courtyard that served as the entrance to the Thomas Solomon Gallery and called attention to past and present relationships between nature and culture, architecture and landscape, and art and decoration.  

 

Tracing the path of the visitor through the gallery/garden courtyard were five pavers mounted with plaques etched with texts and images. These ranged from an 1829 quote about the Alhambra by the American author Washington Irving, to the ground plan of the Lindaraja garden from the 1500s, to the carpet label which proudly displayed the American flag.  These plaques were used as additional markers of meaning that asked the viewer to consider the various references and make connections through cultures and time presenting fresh insights into how our surroundings are shaped.