Conversations in a garden
This installation was commissioned for the Malta Biennale 2026, curated by Rosa Martinez. It was made in a 450 year old room within the Cittadella on the island of Gozo.
March - May 2026.
Lemon, Orange, Carob, Almond, Olive and Fig branches from the orchards of Gozo, steam bent with my body weight.
With heartfelt thanks to local lace maker Maria Mizzi and her husband Leli, who hand made the linen braid and hemp rope the branches are hanging from.
With thanks to photographer Lisa Attard and videographer Illias Bujega.
A text written around New Year, 2025.
The branches have changed since they were cut from their orchards.
They grew on Gozo. Then they were taken to Gozo Contemporary artist residency, where a towering Rubber tree stands in the garden. One after another, day after day, the branches hang under its canopy, like children’s swings.
Some swings accommodate a seated body. Others fit just a resting head or pulling hand. Each one is surrounded by a soft plastic chamber full of steam. The heat makes the branch’s fibres so pliable that when the artist sits down to swing, it curves underneath her. The next day she moves further along the branch. She cannot predict or control the bend it develops.
In this way, each branch becomes one line of a drawing in air.
The varied characteristics of local tree species are expressing themselves through the process. Their diversity is revealed as time passes in the garden. The outdoor studio is shared with spiders on tightropes, flurries of birds, patrolling cats, loud rain on dense leaves…
What is the aim here? The hope? To find linear forms that seem unusually alive. To draw them together. For there to be movement and materials, directions and conversations.
The composition of branches, air and stone is ever variable. They are all in conversation.