Ha-ha Reversed

Site-responsive Art, Environmental Art, Land Art.

Ha-ha Reversed intervenes in the English Landscape style of garden design by literally inverting the garden feature of the Ha-ha and the ideas pertaining to power and control it represents. A mound over twelve meters long emerges out of the manicured lawn in front of Werribee mansion. It is planted with swathes of grasses indigenous to the Western Plains, paying homage to the “grasslands” that preceded the “lawnlands”.

Resembling an empty trench, a Ha-ha functioned as a fence or boundary between the garden area around the house and agricultural territories of the estate. Livestock enhanced the idyllic scenery while remaining strategically contained. This enabled an illusion of endless pastoral views and land ownership.