Known for his work unravelling the nature of audience experience through site-specific installations and happenings, artist Doug Aitken’s latest piece, The Living Garden, creates a playground of destruction with the viewer at its chaotic center. Here, he talks about the project:

“The garden is a living artwork that embraces the dichotomy between the natural environment and synthetic, man-made experience; an installation that brings the viewer into its center, asking them to physically immerse themselves, participate and become the subject of the installation.

“Set in the dark expanse of a warehouse, viewers walk inside, their eyes adjusting to the changes in light. At the center of the space resides a lush jungle growing under artificial grow lights, which houses an enormous bulletproof glass chamber. Within this large glass cube, viewers can destroy a sterile environment replete with generic elements of modern life: tables, chairs, a cabinet, lights.

“One at a time they enter this perfect room and can destroy absolutely everything.”