a beautiful sidewalkstrip, not the lawn space that my minigolf would be replacing
The location chosen for the minigolf course(s) are sidewalk strips because this area allows for ease of transformation and accessibility. These (often) grass strips are somewhere between public and private: open for movement/engagement yet expected to be maintained by the homeowner. It is also for this reason that I favor this option over creating public art works that would require city approval. My materials and intentions aim to highlight the integration with nature that I see golf often falling short of.
Is this the best use for this space? Certainly not. What should go here instead of mini golf? Does this fun activity of public intervention set new precedent whether legally or conceptually?
Because of the location, in addition golf, my project also aims to push against the all-american lawn. “Grass may be a plant, but a lawn is an entirely designed object.”* Many times the sidewalk strip is underutilized and is just an extension of the manicured lawn being held back by dated aesthetic values. Lawns as we know them started in England, the rich and powerful wanted to mimic the pastoral environments seen in paintings. These lawns also became a gross flexing of wealth as they demonstrated that they could survive without using the land for food (not to mention the labor costs to keep it maintained). This use of land and demonstration of status continued onward, and a growing middle class in the US with access to land in suburbia only stripped the land down even more—turning it into the borderline mono-culture we see today. “Lawns are nature purged of sex and death”* not allowed to grow tall enough to replenish, and watered and cared for as to never die. My materials and intentions aim to shift our efforts towards more conscious choices.
*Greenspan, Sam. “99% Invisible,” n.d. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/lawn-order/.