Making a Garden [illustration for ‘Folio 6, Dances 30-35’] 1971

Editor: Here we have Ian Tyson's "Making a Garden," an illustration from his ‘Folio 6, Dances 30-35’ series. The neat grid of colorful rectangles feels playful, almost like a child's building blocks. What do you make of this ordered arrangement, seemingly titled "Making a Garden"? Curator: Well, "making" implies an action, a becoming. And what is a garden but a controlled wildness? It's the tension between that grid, those blocks of strict color, and the implied organic chaos. It reminds me of Mondrian, but with a wink. Editor: Mondrian for gardeners, maybe? Curator: Exactly! Perhaps Tyson's inviting us to find the art in the everyday, in the act of cultivating, pruning… even in something as seemingly simple as arranging colored squares. It’s strangely poetic, don't you think? Editor: I guess so. It does make me think differently about what art can be.