FROM SKIN TO SCULPTURE
Harley Street Skin Clinic and Gold Medal Winner Create Alchemy at Chelsea
Gold medal-winning garden designer Robert Barker will create a horticultural and sculptural tribute to our skin at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
The‘Skin Deep'conceptual garden comes from a unique collaboration with the renowned Harley Street Skin clinic and pays tribute to our largest organ - our skin, our own unique brand, which signals clues to our genetic heritage, age and health.
A modernist designer Robert (40) from Cambridge is flying high. Following a successful career as a musician, a visit to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2010 changed his creative direction.
In just 6 short years he has worked with Diarmuid Gavin and enjoyed enormous success at numerous RHS landmark events with a Gold-Medal winning show garden at Hampton Court in 2016. Robert's ascendance to the elite of garden design has been nothing short of meteoric. Now he is turning his eye to the creation of a stunning show garden at Chelsea.
The ‘Skin Deep'garden will feature a path that cuts through a virtual cityscape sculpture leading to a serene space for contemplation. Concrete blocks depicting human faces and skin conditions, will be offset by Boehmeria platanifolia and Astilboides tabularis, beautiful ferns, grasses and other plants, also chosen to represent an aspect of human skin - its beauty and diversity, and the ailments that befall it.
‘Skin Deep'has been inspired by the work of Harley Street Skin clinic founded by Dr Aamer Khan and Lesley Reynolds - skin and anti-ageing experts. Dr Khan is renowned for his cosmetic artistry and pioneering work with injured servicemen and women, while Lesley, author of the bestselling ‘Look Younger for Longer' and a regular guest onThis MorningandLorraine, has been a tour de force in the skincare world for decades.
Lesley describes the concept of the‘Skin Deep'garden: "We asked Robert to capture the intense connection our skin has with our life story and incredibly, he has found a way to translate this into an inspired horticultural and landscaping show garden."
Robert provides further insight, saying: "The garden demonstrates all the changes that can affect our skin as we go through life with its textural planting scheme, concrete blocks and small pools of water which not only add a reflective quality but also remind us of its importance to maintaining a healthy skin. I hope that the depth of our message will shine through the design."
The ‘Skin Deep'garden can be seen at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show, The Royal Hospital, 22-26 May 2018. The garden is sponsored by the Skin Deep Group led by Harley Street Skin, along with Vaughan Designs, Chiltern GRC and London Stone.
For further information contact Melanie Faldo atmelanie@kbapr.com
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Construction of the ‘Skin Deep' garden will be realised by Robert Barker Garden & Landscape Design and Jamie Fuller of Terra Forma Landscapes.
Robert Barker's partnership with Jamie Fuller catapulted them both to the very top of garden design when they collaborated on the Gold Medal winning 'The Red Thread' garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in 2016, the inspiration for which was the Chinese myth that suggests that when we are born the gods tie our ankles with a red thread and attach it to all the people whose lives we are destined to touch. At the time Monty Don commented: "The Red Thread by designer Robert Barker exemplifies all that is interesting about the conceptual garden and the judges agree with me because they gave it a gold medal."
Named after the legendary Bob Dylan, Robert Barker believed from an early age that music would be his calling. He studied music at college and then enjoyed a successful career playing at venues all over London. In 2008, he created his own independent record label and released a number of EP's and an album. He was about to be signed by a major label when he decided to change creative direction. He lives in Cambridge with his Australian wife and family.