Green Phoenix Commission

Disturbed Ground is the latest iteration of Exeter-based artist Adam Garratt’s ongoing Shifting Sites project, appearing in multiple parts in and around the 2025 Green Phoenix Festival venue.

Presented as a playful critique of consumption and disposal without attributing blame, Disturbed Ground aims to address everyday environmental consumption and waste with an even hand. It is inspired by the temporary mounds or piles of gravel, mud, tarmac or concrete created when human activity disturbs the ground, between digging and resurfacing in our urban environments. Using reclaimed industrial materials such as discarded tarpaulin, hi-vis work wear and cardboard as a kind of human ‘rubble’, the artist explores the notion of temporary sculpture. He focuses on removing space that might normally be used by a person, intervening in and disrupting the fabric of the festival itself, whether filling a seat, the corner of a room or a carpark space.

Adam Garratt’s practice is primarily based in sculpture, installation and print and has evolved around constraints of space, the use of material and repetitious making processes. His work is often made with reclaimed materials and is specifically made to expand into an installation when it is not neatly folded, stacked and rolled for storage and re-use in the garden shed. Conscious not to make extra waste, Adam chooses carefully which materials to make work with. They come with their own history of prior use and bare the marks of an embodied labour, often with holes, creases, tears, dirt and stains.

Part of Green Phoenix Festival.

Shifting Sites | Disturbed Ground was commissioned by Exeter Phoenix for The Green Phoenix Festival with the support of the Fenton Arts Trust, along with a second performance commission by Hedgesong Collective.

Green Phoenix Festival is a one day event, delivered in partnership with a variety of sustainability-focused local groups, organisations and individuals, that looks towards a sustainable future using collective creativity to empower action.