Fallow Forms
by anna andrejew
Fallow Forms is a site-responsive project developed within Garden 65 at VTV Tuinderslust—an allotment that resists strict cultivation and embraces intentional wildness. Though it may appear unkempt, the garden is shaped by daily presence, close observation, and subtle acts of care. This complexity offers a fertile ground to reflect on how we perceive and engage with land often deemed “unused” or “unproductive” in the urban landscape.
As part of the project, discarded cardboard boxes collected from city streets were pulped into handmade paper. This material, typically overlooked or thrown away, was repurposed and laid directly onto the soil—echoing the protective layering techniques used in permaculture, where mulch shields the ground from frost or drought. In this way, the paper became a second skin for the earth: a quiet gesture of care and reciprocity.
Fallow Forms is an ongoing artistic research project into urban fallow land, care practices, and shifting notions of value. It asks: what does it mean to tend to a space that grows on its own terms? What forms can care take when it’s not about control?
Information:
– 297mm×420mm
– Design: Sonya Umanskaya
– Printed in Sep 2025
This publication carries traces and explorations emerging from the material research practice of anna andrejew — cardboard, paper, soil, and the subtle gestures of care that shape them.
It presents a site-responsive outcome of ongoing artistic research into urban fallow land, care practices, and shifting notions of what we value.
