Gardens are control

Readings for Week 8 on gardens made me think not only about gardens in a new light, but also the human condition. The three readings were about slaves’ gardens on working plantations, ancient Mayan gardens and some of Burle Marx’s gardens. According to Catherine Benoit, slave-owned gardens or dooryard gardens were quite profound on working plantations. According to Benoit, the slave masters allowed slaves to work small plots of land. Potentially African in origin in layout and character, these places probably served as a means of escape from the harsh realities of slavery and as places where slaves could bond over communal and maybe ritualistic activities. Interesting Benoit points out that the items that slave masters prohibited slaves from owning such as trinkets, etc. would often be stored in secret locations in these gardens. It is difficult for me to imagine, but I would think these gardens to be a sanctuary for an oppressed person; they would be a place closed off to the harsh oppression and confines of the world around them. Benoit points out that the gardens were picturesque to the landscape, but they were also probably allowed for control. If someone is allowed brief moments of escape from the harsh governance, he/she is probably more likely to be subdued and less likely to revolt. This is something I’m sure slave masters considered – how to keep the slave population at bay, so they awarded them small plots of land and brief times when they could keep to themselves.

Ancient Mayan rulers used gardens for control as well. I will not attempt to understand the daily life of an ancient Mayan, but according to Susan Evans, as the Mayan civilization advanced, they created gardens that ordinary citizens could visit and behold. According to Evans this would have been a powerful statement to the ruler’s subjects showing his power over the land and connection to the gods. This would have been an astonishing statement of strength for any ruler to his subjects.

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/866

The third article is a transcribed speech that Burle Marx gave about his gardens in Brazil. His gardens encompassed the beauty of Brazil playing on form, texture and context. In a way it was giving back to the people and very existential. Each experience was for the individual. But in another light, Burle Marx was about control as well. He controlled the land, people’s movement and wanted to evoke particular emotions, thoughts and feelings about Brazil and the world through his gardens. In some ways, by controlling movement and having carefully thought out abstract gardens, he was using gardens for control the most out of the three articles. Is this good or bad?

All landscapes have value and meaning to groups of people and the individual, and I think carefully designed gardens for humanitarian and environmental reasons are the best ways to control minds in an already carefully controlled, manufactured space.