Virtual Tour Sedition Exhibition

Click on the image for a virtual tour of the Tullie House show

Tullie House Install Day#3

Finishing touches and discussion of exterior lighting. Amused to see sign!

Tullie House Install Day#2

Hydroponics installation nearly complete and ready for tomorrow's opening. Thanks to John Stokes, Donna Marris (for sorting out those lovely holes) all at Tullie House, Chris Dobbinson, the Sparkies and Fiona Venables for helping get the grow room ready.

I'm wondering what the impact of walking through the gallery door straight into a stud wall with a door in it and a sign on that that says 'Restricted Access' will be for a visiting public! No one can go in without getting instruction from the gallery staff! It is really good to be included in the show. The other artist's work is terrific and I'm looking forward to meeting them. It was especially nice to see Jae Dudman today with whom I worked in 2000 (She has aged more gracefully than I have!)

Still thinking through the fact that we tried to run a 2645 watt draw through a supply fused to three amps! (Not what I asked for!). Co2 cylinder and release control system fitted and water pumps, pots and clay balls with timed nutrient piping installed. Input and output fans in and commisioned. Some work still to do on the white black sheeting and an irritating plug that I don't like! We could could grow something.... but we won't be. http://www.vistaprojects.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/TH-Sedition-Programme-20pp-LoRez-v81.pdf

Tullie House Install Day#1

Long day but by the end of the day the weirdness of it has begun to come together. Fantastic build by Chris Dobbinson/Tullie House staff and John Stokes. Thanks everybody.

Plants in Films!

Harry Brown. 2010. A recent release starring Michael Caine and directed by Daniel Barber is a fictional account of geriatric vigilante action against a street gang set on a London housing estate. Brown, the protagonist (played by Caine) takes on a gang who have killed his only friend. He visits a pair of local drug dealers to buy a gun to realise his revenge but the encounter is volatile and twisty.

It ends in a violent confrontation with Brown murdering both dealers. The final execution shot is taken amongst cannabis plants in their hydroponic garden. Brown ends the scene by burning the plants.

Little Shop of Horrors originally directed by Roger Cormen in 1960 and remade in 1986 by Frank Oz. A comedy film about a florist’s assistant Seymour, played by Rick Moranis in the 80’s version, who cultivates a plant (Audrey) that feeds on human blood and flesh. The original, which was was shot over two days on a budget of only $30,000 on a borrowed set, gained a cult following as a B movie perhaps in part because of a cameo appearance by the young Jack Nicholson which was featured rather more prominently than was appropriate on the promotional material! In the later version Audrey is voiced by Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops. Audrey demands to be fed with Seymour's blood leading to the film’s most hysterical musical number.

Silent Running 1972 directed by Douglas Trumbull and starring Bruce Dern. The film is set in a future in which all plant life on earth has ended. The remaining specimens are preserved much in the manner of Noah’s Ark in enormous geodesic domes attached to a series of space freighters orbiting Saturn. Dern plays the resident botanist/ecologist who is charged with the preservation of the forests for their eventual return to earth accompanied by three robots called, Hughie, Louie and Dewey. The film depicts the disintegration and loneliness of Dern’s character ‘Lowell’ as the forest dies. His last act is to jettison the forest to safety before detonating his ship and ending his own life. What is so remarkable is the almost exact correlation between the domes on the spaceship and those of the Eden Project in Cornwall. It's almost as if... Actually I can't bear to say it!

Wiring and testing

Yesterday collected the Hydroponics gear for the show and drove it up from Manchester. Tested the lighting which takes a while to warm up - because I'm wanting to go with 4, 600 watt sodium lamps. The ballasts are huge and very heavy. I may have to hang them off the ceiling. The lamps are quite hard to look at! We were interrupted by a neighbour who thought the house might be on fire (leaving me with a little explaining to do)

Delivered the material to Tullie House today for the install and PAT testing.

It's going to look really nasty.

The exhibition guide has been published and it all hangs together well. http://www.vistaprojects.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/TH-Sedition-Programme-20pp-LoRez-v81.pdf

I'm looking forward to the preview and party. I've fixed up to talk about my work and thinking at the Gallery on Saturday 27th November at 1:00 in the afternoon book on 01228 618700

How to get hold of Hydroponic Gear? Shop for it. Doh!

In my searches for information about hydroponic equipment mostly using Youtube, Google and Ebay I had become aware of retailers and nurseries who supplied all this material off the shelf.

Although the expense was much larger with my equipment list costing up to £3,500 all told it did have certain benefits. The Gallery would not ask me about portable appliance testing for example if I could show them a receipt for newly bought equipment, at first I thought that was just about the only benefit and I could not afford the kit

To follow my researches I visited two hydroponic superstores in Manchester, Holland Hydroponics (who also have a store near Crown Point in Burnley) and the Manchester Hydroponic Centre. I went first to Holland Hydroponics. It was surrounded by galvanised palisade fencing and had an intercom entry system with a double lock door. There were notices about how much cash (none) was held in the premises on the window. I pressed the buzzer and was let in. Inside the shop had all the ambience of any nursery with hydroponic systems on display and a series of plants, squashes, tomatoes, bananas growing in display areas intended to show off the products. I was impressed to see product ranges such as the Secret Jardin range of tents and the rows and rows of nutrient solutions with titles like Organic Bud Blaster and B52 Voodoo Juice. There was an impressive array of reflectors, ventilator systems, carbon filters and electronic control systems mostly made by Canatronics who manufacture the eco-switch. I approached the sales assistant and bought a hydroponic plant pot which I have now converted into a lampshade and some diamond pattern mylar sheeting. I told him about my project and asked if there was any way in which they could become involved.

He said that his boss would have to decide and that I should send them an email. Nothing happened as a result of this.

Next, I went to Manchester Hydroponic Centre. It was much the same story here. The unit was just around the corner from Focus DIY. Door security was laxer but this was compensated for by the presence of a large bull terrier that was barricaded in beyond the cash desk but very much capable of making his presence felt.

The staff were friendly and helpful and when I told them what my project was they said that they had been recently hired by the BBC to set up a grow room as part of the shooting of an episode of Gavin and Stacey and that this would be a similar type of thing.

In the event they offered to hire me a higher specification of equipment than I had originally asked for, this would include a CO2 bottle and control system. For me this offer seemed reasonable. It had the following benefits –

1. It would provide me with that all important VAT receipt (My accountant will be happy!)

2. It would prevent me from having to deal with somebody who I did not know in a place where I did not know and who was probably not in any sense straight.

3. It would mean that I was not faced with the problem at the close of the show that I would have to dispose of the equipment for cash again to someone I did not know who was not all that straight.

So that’s a plan…

How to get hold of Hydroponic Gear? Ebay.

Another way of getting the equipment was to buy it. Whenever I need to buy anything I turn automatically to ebay. I entered the term 'hydroponic grow room' into the search bar not quite knowing what to expect (I have to say here that having previously entered the term 'nuclear bunker' I was surprised to find the MOD selling just that in my area).

What was returned were pages and pages and pages of hundreds of items including equipment for whole grow rooms. One entry from an address in Hexham caught my eye. The product description set out a plausible story with the seller, a landlord who had rented a property to tenants who had left the rent unpaid and abandoned an array of 600W metal halide lamps, reflectors, ballasts, electrical controllers, flood and drain systems etc. etc. in his house. There is normally no need to put an excuse for selling something into a product description but there you go.

He said that these had lain unused in his garage for the last two years and, as his photographs showed, much of this material had never been taken out of the box. I found myself wondering if he was a legitimate seller or whether this story was a front.

I decided to watch the item.

He claimed that the retail value of all this material was approximately £2,500. As I watched, the bidding climbed from a few hundred pounds to an eventual sale price close to the end of the auction of over £600. I wondered who might have bought this material and what use they would put it to. I wondered where the cash they would use to buy it would come from and what the paper trail might be. I wondered if I bought this material with Vista Projects money would I be able to ask for a VAT receipt. I decided that this was a world in which VAT receipts along with the second names of the vendors were probably not made available too often.

So having drawn a blank I turned back to ebay and my now saved search for a ‘hydroponic grow room’. I began to watch other items and also bought a book ‘Grow like a Pro’ a compilation of articles on how to grow cannabis. I settled briefly on a grow room for sale in West Yorkshire. The seller was registered as a business seller who could provide a VAT receipt. Because of this I was able to get his company details and a postcode. I saved images of the equipment offered for sale on ebay and put the postcode and the address into Google Earth to locate the property. One of the photographs showed a set of drainage trays and in the corner of the photograph was a pink child’s bike, the same bike could clearly be seen outside the house on Google Earth.

The interior construction of the garage in which the trays were shown corresponded to the asbestos type of garage that could be seen in the drive.

This began to look like a genuine prospect.

The equipment list was as follows:

6 x Canopy
6 x Power Plant Horticultural lighting Ballast
1 x Eco - switch b/t (timer brand new)
1 x Blue lab truncheon (brand new)
2 x Timer switches (not shown on pics)
1 x Primair combined temperature and fan speed controller ( brand new)
6x Small power head pumps
1 x Large power head pump
1 x Water proof ph scan one tester (brand new)
6 x Bulbs 600watts veg or flower sun master UIS-VRD
2 x Bulbs sun master flowering bulbs ( brand new)
2 x Fans
1 x Ducting (not shown in pics)
2 x Grow trays 51cm x 142cm
2 x florescent modular lighting 63cm x 60cm
1 x Full roll (unopened brand new) hydroponics infa red stop reflective sheeting

I watched the item and rang the vendor who had left a number on ebay for enquiries to ask about the VAT receipt. He was very surprised to get my call. I searched the classified listings of his local newspaper to find evidence of his trading activity. He told me that the bid price would be what I paid and VAT wouldn’t be added. It didn’t matter about VAT anyway because he was selling it for a friend. I decided not to bid and was relieved to think that I had remembered to dial 141 before ringing him. In the event the auction attracted 25 bids and the lot went for £620.

Most of the hydroponics equipment I was looking at for sale on ebay could be located in Manchester, Liverpool and in East Lancashire but it was only occasionally possible to identify the actual seller or location as ebay preserves anonymity. Quite often (and legitimately) people sell things for other people. I was worried that I might think I was buying from an address in leafy Tatton only to find myself collecting from and paying cash in Moss Side!

At the end of this episode I began to think about paranoia. As I do not take this drug I found myself thinking how bad the experience of paranoia might be for anybody that actually did smoke it.

The worst of this method was that at the close of the exhibit I might have to resell the equipment and all these risk, trust and paranoia issues would surface again.

How to get hold of Hydroponic Gear? Ask the Police.

Most private hydroponic gardens in the UK (though by no means all) are used to grow cannabis. Such gardens range in size from installations of industrial scale to domestic environments and even cupboards. Each garden of this type, if it contains cannabis, represents a crime. The growing of cannabis having first been criminalised in the UK on the 28th September 1928 when the 1925 Dangerous Drugs Act came into force.

Hydroponics works for growing because as Jeffrey Winterborne says in his book, Hydroponics Indoor Horticulture, 'water, nutrient and air are mainlined directly to the root ball, freeing the plant to use its available energy in the upper leaf, fruit or flower development"... its "super charged battery farming for plants on steroids" but the plants are in heaven not hell'. (I should add that the book contains the following disclaimer: 'it has come to our attention that some people use information and equipment related to the subject of hydroponics for illegal activities. The author, producers and publishers do not advocate breaking the law, nor is this publication (and corresponding website) intended to encourage or promote the use of illegal substances or activities'.)

So having first made the proposal to the Gallery, then having the proposal accepted, I then became worried about how I would procure the equipment needed for the installation. My shopping list was as follows:

Ventilation

Carbon Filter and chain
Outward fan and ducting (6 metres)
Inward fan and ducting (6 metres)
Oscillating fan

Lighting
4 x 600 watt metal halide or sodium lamps (as seen)
4 x reflector as illustrated
4 x adjustable hangers
4 x ballasts
1 x eco switch contactor – (Canatronics?)
24 pot flood and drain system with pumps and all controls

Gas
C02 bottle with controller

I wondered if the Police had any confiscated equipment.

The idea of exhibiting equipment that had been used in the commission of an actual crime was itself attractive in relation to the proposal as the provenance of this material would add value to the ideas in the exhibition.

Obtaining the equipment from the Police was clearly the safest route, but also the route I dreaded most. Fortunately, I have some local friends who were formerly senior officers with the Thames Valley Police. I was dreading cold calling the Police and asking if they had any hydroponic growing gear so I asked them for some tips.

I thought that if I could use the good offices of another party my approach to them might seem more legitimate so I asked my friend about it and to my surprise she felt that it would not be a problem at all. She said that I should simply write to the Chief Constable of the local area and anticipate that the letter would be passed to a Properties Officer for attention.

She told me that when the police confiscate assets and materials associated with crime that they have a responsibility to sell it and realise the best price unless they have reason to believe that these goods could be used in the commission of further crimes e.g. weapons and drugs. I wondered if this put me in a strong position because I felt that I would probably be the only legitimate user of such equipment who might approach them and offer to buy it.

I am by nature a person who feels intense guilt at any whiff of crime or indeed at the mere presence of a Police Officer and I can blush if accused of speeding for example. (I understand that there is an obsessive compulsive disorder that consists entirely of confessing to crimes even though none have been committed. This could be me!)

While the proposal was being considered by the Gallery and thought through in terms of what it might mean for them to exhibit it - I sat on this idea and my friend’s advice hoping that this would produce the right result if needed.

The Gallery had decided that they did want to take the proposal for the exhibition and it transpired that a member of the Gallery staff, Mary Robinson (Services Manager) was an Eden District Councillor. I know of her as a supporter of the arts because she is on Eden Arts Board. Fiona Venables who is curating the show told me that as part of her work as a Councillor she sat on the Cumbria Police Authority and she would ask her if she could approach the police on my behalf. Being a complete coward I instantly accepted the suggestion and this is what she said to the police....

"I attach a proposal for an art installation: ‘A Hydroponic Garden for Growing Skunk Cannabis’, by the artist Christian Barnes.

The Hydroponic Garden will be a central component of ‘Sedition’, an exhibition in Tullie House Art Gallery that runs from 18 September – 28 November 2010 and which is designed to celebrate the most innovative and challenging work being produced by professional visual artists in Cumbria.

Within the context of Sedition, the work is deliberately provocative - but ultimately it uses the black market cultivation of skunk cannabis to compel a greater consideration of the relationship between humans and plants and of plant cultivation in the real economy.

The installation will not include cannabis but the artist is interested in using equipment with this provenance to create the garden; we would also like to acquire equipment in such a way as we are not inadvertently supporting in any way the illicit cultivation of cannabis. For this reason, we are enquiring about the possibility of borrowing any confiscated equipment currently being stored by the police for the duration for the exhibition.

To ensure that the garden can be created by the time of the exhibition, we do need to know whether borrowing equipment in this way is viable. Could you please give us some indication of this by 9 July?"

I was really wanting equipment that the police held in store which might sit between a period of confiscation/evidence and destruction. It turned out that they had nothing available but that in fact they were willing to check their stores for the purpose after Mary’s intervention.

Later a friend had sent me this link to the News and Star about a raid on a cannabis grower in Wigton but it wasn't timely.

My grow room for cannabis plants by Limbo on hennepdesk.eu