Thickset, coarse and bristly, green alkanet has the feel of an outsider, pitching up on boundary land, putting down its stubborn roots, which, once, were used to make red dye.
Edlin is well aware of just how porous the boundary separating outsider art from contemporary art can be.
Interest in so-called 'outsider art' (created outside the boundaries of traditional art) is at an all-time high, as seen in recent prominent exhibitions at the Wellcome Collection and Hayward Gallery.
"Pirates," he says, "are people who don't care, who cross boundaries — outsiders".
Neighborhoods such as Astoria, Elmhurst, Flushing, and Sunnyside, all in Queens, offer so much within their boundaries that an outsider trying to figure them out can easily experience information overload.
There are intriguing complex shadings surrounding its contradictions and the fact that no place could be less tolerant of the desires of Saville or other natural outsiders trapped within the village boundary – but nowhere could they be better understood or valued either.
Some of the most quintessential depictions of the American land and people arise from a particular eye: the eye of the outsider, who can see the boundaries of Americanness invisible to the native-born.
That creates the sort of boundary designed to discourage outsiders, innovation and difference.
IN the often rancorous field of outsider art, a terrain whose very boundaries and name are frequently debated, most people agree on the importance of the legendary Prinzhorn Collection.
Thus, participatory foresight is one that welcomes the figure of the outsider, the individual who challenges the boundaries of sociality, to detect the seeds of change for some 'other tomorrow'.
"And yet, the very British side of me, who is the child of immigrants, is the side of me that welcomes outsiders – the modern British side, that is – and enjoys crossing boundaries and sharing boundaries and being open to what an outsider might bring.
