Plaque: Princess Diana - Serpentine Gallery
Erection date: /5/1998
{The 6 outer rings list the names of trees, with English and Latin names. We did not transcribe this whole list but here are some examples:}
The small-leaved lime, wych elm, holly, holm oak, acer pseudoplatanus, sycamore, carpinus betulus, white poplar, London plane, yew.
{The next 6 rings:}
The beauty of trees, their cool shades and their aptness to conceal from observation have made groves and woods the usual retreat to those who love solitude especially to the religious, the pensive, the melancholy and the amorous.
{the 3 inner rings:}
Diana Princess of Wales, patron of the Serpentine Gallery,1993 – 1996.
"The beauty of trees..." is a quotation from Hutcheson.
Site: Princess Diana - Serpentine Gallery (1 memorial)
W2, Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens
This art work was not intended as a memorial to Princess Diana. In The Herald: Finlay explains. ''The whole project, which mixes sadness and tranquillity and is elegiac in every aspect, was designed before she died. All I did was insert her name into the centre of the text..... The centre was blank. It was as though that space had been left to take Diana's name.''
Garden Visit describes this multi-part art work as "The sculpture is comprised of eight stone benches, a tree-plaque and, at the entrance of the Gallery, a large slate disc set in a field of cobbles, inscribed with the names of trees (in both Botanical Latin and English) found in the classic English landscape of Kensington Gardens. The eight benches, each inscribed with pastoral poetry, are arranged in two arcs on a circular mound with Calininia trees.....Across the meadow is a handsome horse-chestnut, with a tree-plaque quoting Virgil's Ecologues X in th original Latin on the theme of evening."
more information at Serpentine Gallaries.
