Green Varnish

Green Varnish, designed by landscape architecture firm Nomad Studio, was the first installation of its kind, located in the courtyard of CAM in Saint Louis, with the aim of transforming and altering the space. A green fabric made up of thousands of plants floated in the space, symbolically covering the inconvenient facts of society. The structure occupied approximately 200 square meters and turned the courtyard into an exuberant sculpture filled with life. It was a natural tapestry that played with the architectural space, while provoking it.

The founding partners of Nomad Studio, William E. Roberts and Laura Santín, explored the necessity of hiding inconvenient realities with politically correct beauty: “Deep inside the collective awareness, it is clear we need to overcome major changes in order to cope with climate change. Currently, our response is completely reactionary and we mainly express it in two different manners: pure rejection or some form of green shift that enables us to continue business as usual.”

William and Laura are known for their intuitive approach of combining contemporary art and design with natural elements. Their work, which has been internationally awarded, has mainly focused on projects closely related to the social and environmental impact of landscape architecture.

With Green Varnish Nomad Studio is making an ironic gesture towards the ‘greening’ trend camouflaged beneath the mantra of sustainability, resilience and other words, which are often abused in the current world of design. The installation was displayed in September in Saint Louis, Mississippi. The second installation “2^nd Act” by Nomad Studio will be exhibited in the CAM from May to September 2016.