Display turns inside out

By CASEY NEILL
COCKATOO’S Wendy Clarke is passionate about bringing the outside in and using nature to improve people’s wellbeing.
She was commissioned to design and build a pop up park for last week’s Decoration and Design fair at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.
The pop up park is the only garden installation at the trade fair, which is held in Melbourne and Sydney annually.
“I’ve designed it to blur the wall between inside and out,” she said.
“The garden will find its way throughout the interior space and the interiors will be quite at home in the forest section of the park.
“I want the design professionals visiting the show to ask themselves ‘why not’.”
Ms Clarke said the worldwide trend was to bring more and more real nature – not just potted nature – inside and over the shelters people spend so much time in.
“Our need to connect to nature is growing and the design industry needs to find innovative ways of responding to that need in a simple way,” she said.
She’s a passionate advocate for creating public gardens of reflection and natural playgrounds, and involving the community in the planning and construction.
“I believe that with community ownership of inspiring public spaces that are relevant to them … we develop a resilient and supportive community,” she said.
Ms Clarke and her business Dirtscape Dreaming moved to Cockatoo two months ago.
“Although I have only recently moved to this area, I feel so much a part of this community and am hoping to work with council and the community on these areas in future,” she said.
Ms Clarke said the pop up park concept had been around for a while now and had originated in the US.
People would come into spaces “sorely lacking in green” and put together a temporary green space.
“A bit like guerrilla gardening,” she said.
Her first pop up park was a plastic-driven creation for Tupperware for the 2005 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show.
She poured enormous creativity and effort into it – then tore it down.
“It broke my heart,” she said.
“But people were delighted and remembered it.
“That makes it all worthwhile.”
She said temporary installations were constructed to a very strict deadline.
“But you have to make it look like it’s been there forever to attract people to it,” she said.
Decoration and Design predominantly features furniture and interior design, so she wanted her garden to “give some relief”.
Ms Clarke had spoken at a previous fair and was delighted to be asked back to display her passion.
“It’s always lovely to get an endorsement of the work that you’re doing,” she said.
Once the garden is torn down she’ll use the trees on a school project, return some stock to supplies, and return leaf litter to nature.
“It dismantles pretty easily,” she said.
The pop up park includes a bath surrounded by greenery.
“That’s my dream bathroom,” she said.
“I would like to see the outside well and truly in.
“I’m always pushing the boundaries.”
Ms Clarke wants to make people think outside the square. She’s passionate about gardens for reflection and healing.
She wants to help people to make a connection to nature and reduce stress.
Helping people has been her passion for “a long time”. She used to work as a nurse and watched many people realise in their darkest moments that they’d got their priorities wrong.
“My whole purpose is to try and connect people to themselves through nature,” she said.
Ms Clarke also studied for a fashion degree in London.
“Different careers have influenced the way I present nature to people,” she said.
And she doesn’t think that will be the end of her career-swapping ways.
“I don’t think I’m finished yet,” she laughed.
“But I think there will always be a landscape element to what I do.
“Watch this space.”
Ms Clarke has some “very exciting” projects on the horizon. She’ll speak about gardens for relaxation and healing at Emerald Library in October and said to watch out for a beautiful and whimsical garden at next year’s Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, featuring a Hobbit house.
“It’s giving people a bit of relief from the serious landscapes you see around the place,” she said.