Andrew Dodds Projects & Exhibitions       Home Projects & Exhibitions All Things Wunderkammer Ask FM Underfall > Arcadia... Alive! After the Deluge Life in the Woods Arcade Lost in Space more... Publications Contact       Underfall Video, field samples, field notes, 2009   Commissioned by The Architecture Centre, Bristol, 'Underfall' is part of an ongoing series looking at the hidden social and political resonances of interstitial public spaces. A local abseiling botanist, Libby Houston, was commissioned to survey the flora within one of Bristol’s Victorian dry docks. Houston often works in the Avon Gorge, abseiling the valley's steep slopes to gather information on the area’s unique vegetation – she is credited with the discovery of a new species of tree. For 'Underfall' Libby was transported from her usual rural working environment to study the man-made, subterranean ‘cliff face’ of the dry dock walls as a botanical and conceptual comparison of the two sites. The industrial boatyard was found to be extremely diverse in terms of vegetation: a micro-climate had developed within the dry dock and 88 species were documented in the one-day survey. Detailed results of the survey were made available in the gallery alongside field notes, field samples and a video document following the working process.     Image on right courtesy The Architecture Centre, Bristol