The Garden of England: SOLO EXHIBITION
The Queens House,
The National Maritime Museum

The Garden of England was the inaugural project of the Royal Museums Greenwich contemporary art programme at the Queen’s House. Responding to the museum’s portrait collection, Alice created three new works that celebrated the queens and courtiers
who inhabited the seventeenth-century Queen’s House. Her work spoke to the original setting of the house as a garden retreat, capturing the richness and flamboyance of the Stuart court.

Anne of Denmark (1574-1619) and Henrietta Maria (1609-1669) were central figures. The first, the wife of James I who began work on the Queen’s House and her successor, the French Princess who married Charles I in 1625 and who, with architect Inigo Jones, completed the House in 1633.

The iconic Tulip Stairs – the motif was really a stylised fleur-de-lys the emblem of France and Henrietta Maria – provided a second setting for the dramatic Flower Helix. Composed of handmade flowers reminiscent of Queen Anne’s lace, and created by makers
across the UK contacted through social media, the piece tumbled through the central space of the stairs.

Alice created a new portrait of Henrietta Maria that was installed to overlook a second piece, a luxuriously patterned and textured garden using the floral emblems on Stuart clothing. The garden was surrounded by individual flower heads that visitors could take
as a memento. In this setting, the presence of these two influential Queens was reinstated in their iconic house at Greenwich.