Reverse Sod Swop

For the British Sculpture Show at the Serpentine Gallery in 1983, artist David Nash created Sod Swap, a land art intervention which exchanged a circle of turf from his native North Wales with the lawn at London’s Kensington Gardens. Nash was exploring ideas of place and what sculpture could be. 40 years later, artist Mike Perry’s Reverse Sod Swap is less concerned with the materiality of sculpture and more with Britain’s changing ecologies. By contrasting the loss of flora species in our farmed countryside with the enlightened rewilding our urban parks Perry’s work suggests ‘wildness’ may need to be redefined. Reverse Sod Swap tells the story of both works of art through illustration, photography and essays. Featuring previously unseen photographs and drawings from the original project and over 100 photographs of Reverse Sod Swap, the book also contains an interview with David Nash, now in his 80th year. Essayists include Nicholas Thornton, Ben Tufnell, Anna Souter, Richard Fisher, Lee Schofield.