Darren Sylvester is well known for his cool, pop culture-savvy photographs but in recent years he has also begun to work in video, a medium that allows him to explore his love of music. In the video installation, I Was The Last in The Carpenter’s Garden, Sylvester recreates Karen and Richard Carpenter’s Japanese-style garden in Downey, Los Angeles, from fans’ video footage posted on the website YouTube. Surrounded by lush red carpet, in the glow from a lead-light lamp — both based on pictures of the Carpenter’s pool room — a turntable plays Sylvester’s he describes as ‘Paul McCartney meets the Carpenters’. On the screens behind, the videos pan slowly through the arti cial garden and the artist makes his twilight appearance. 

Darren Sylvester, I Was The Last in The Carpenters’ Garden, (Special Edition 1/6), 2008, single channel digital video, sound, 13:14 min. Courtesy the artist and Sullivan and Strumpf Fine Art.