In his piece, Man and the Mind, poet Shofi Ahmend calls the Garden of Eden “the heavens’ wonder.” This lyrical description of the mythical site struck a chord with Pamela Tan, whose immersive installation, Eden, embodies these ethereal words.
In her practice, Tan toes the line between several creative practices, including art, architecture, and design. Eden, a permanent exhibition in a Malaysian retail center, reflects Tan’s multidisciplinary mindset, as it “blurs the boundaries between man-made wonders and the beauty of nature.”
While its clean lines and monochromatic color palette call modern architecture to mind, a closer look at the structure reveals its garden-inspired roots. Crystal pebbles cover its pathways, which are delineated by trellises and shaded by vines dripping with glass dew droplets. Again echoing Tan’s artistic approach, these “elements melt and merge together becoming a single growing structure.”
Tan hopes that the multi-layered nature of Eden prompts viewers to take the time to fully engage with the environment and observe its details. “Eden wishes to bring you to re-discover the joys of looking closer, to cause you to momentarily suspend your beliefs and become a child once again,” she says. “To believe, if only for a moment, that you are actually in paradise.”
Eden, an architectural installation by Pamela Tan, reimagines the mythical garden as a white wonderland.
Blossoming with exquisite details, the structure invites visitors to “re-discover the joys of looking closer.”
