Abeba Esse - Saatchi Gallery Garden

Project year: 2024
Posted: 01 Jun, 2024

Sponsor

Saatchi Gallery

Artist

Zak Ové

Details

For two consecutive years, Dave Green Gardens was commissioned by the Saatchi Gallery to design a garden display at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, collaborating with a selected Saatchi artist to create a setting for their work.

The 2024 garden, titled Abeba Esse, traced a Black Diasporic journey from Africa to the Caribbean and the UK. Visitors followed a path through evolving landscapes, encountering Zak Ové’s Invisible Man sculptures along the way. The African section symbolised ‘Paradise Found’, while the Caribbean section reflected plantation life, with tilled earth and crops replacing lush native flora. The path marked this transition, shifting from dark jungle soil to wooden planks evoking slave ships. The journey concluded in a quintessential English garden, showcasing plants typical of stately homes, representing the wealth accrued in the UK through slavery.

CED Stone supplied the ECCOgravel stabilisation grid and Cotswold Gravel used for the pathway, ensuring both durability and aesthetic appeal.

The garden sparked conversations around Zak Ové’s themes: the African Diaspora, contemporary multiculturalism, globalisation, and the intersections of politics, tradition, race, and history in shaping identity.

Products used:
ECCOGravel
Cotswold Aggregate