Pastoral Landscape with a Tree-Plaque from ‘Six Proposals for the Improvement of Stockwood Park Nurseries in the Borough of Luton’ 1986

Editor: This is Ian Hamilton Finlay’s "Pastoral Landscape with a Tree-Plaque," a print based on Claude Lorrain. It feels like a classical landscape, but with something…off. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The tension lies in the means of its making and the disruption of pastoral ideals. Finlay and Hincks, through collaborative labor, reproduced an image of an idyllic landscape only to then inscribe it with a plaque that suggests both commemoration and commercial signage. How does this collision of high art and the everyday affect your reading? Editor: I see it! The plaque, it's like a jarring advertisement within this serene scene. It makes me think about how even nature is subject to human intervention and commodification. Curator: Precisely. By re-presenting Lorrain, Finlay engages with a loaded artistic history, but then subverts it by laying bare the productive forces at play, the hand in its making. Editor: So, it’s not just about the beauty of the landscape, but the process and the message embedded in the materials. Curator: Exactly. Art as product and commentary.