The Back Garden Biennale

Sara Sinclair’s Back Garden Biennale, which is now in its second year following its inception in 2006, brings together a culturally diverse group of artists and exhibits their works in the grounds of her own home. The Back Garden Biennale is intended as an antidote to the oppressive and stifled nature of the many Biennales that currently engulf the art world. The recent explosion of the Biennale form has led to an increasing questioning of its relevance as anything other than a mutual appreciation ceremony for the upper echelons of the international art world. Glamorous names, cities and parties all contribute to an event which is more about networking and name checking than it is about the sheer joy of looking at art.

Creating an informal atmosphere and arena, the Back Garden Biennale excises the usual tightropes, nooses and trap doors that many large-scale art events employ to hold sway over the visitor. If anything, the Back Garden Biennale is a whimsical fantasy, deliberately pitched to evoke the casual intimacy of a garden party in direct opposition to the at times Babylonian intensity of the grand old extravaganzas of, for example, Venice. Sinclair presents to the invited public an opportunity to view art in a light-hearted and unconventional environ. You could say this is the rom-com of art exhibitions: a fluffy, bubbly affair with a well-meaning message at the end of it. Coupled with a burger and a frosty beer, this display of earthly delights aims to please and prove in equal measure that art is better viewed in the more sociable of environments than in the overpopulated gladiatorial amphitheatres of the phenomenon known as the Biennale. [Brian Spears]