Land of Cockaigne

In the 1589 edition of his book Magiae Naturalis (Natural Magic), Giambattista della Porta describes using a camera obscura to present audiences with scenes of “Hunting, Battles of Enemies and other delusions”. Staged in the landscape outside the chamber, counterfeit stags, boars, rhinoceros, elephants, lions, and other extraordinary scenery added detail to the landscapes within which the action (hunt, battle or banquet) took place. Taking these early accounts as a starting point, Land of Cockaigne shows live and direct interventions within the landscape. The title refers to the popular medieval fantasy of a Land of Cockaigne; a parody of paradise in which food and drink is ever plentiful, and idleness and gluttony the primary occupation. The work references Peter Bruegel’s anarchic, allegorical rendition of this idea in his 1567 painting of the same name.

Land of Cockaigne was commissioned by Fabrica, in association with Photoworks.