DER WIND TRUS ES IN SEINEM BAUCHE, UND SEINE AMME IST DIE ERDE.
Sein Vater ist die Sonne, und seine Mutter ist der Mond. Der Wind trug es in seinem Bauche, und seine Amme ist die Erde., 2025
Series of four St. John’s Wort preparations, vase in glass by Serax found at Rotor Deconstruction
not for ourselves alone, 2025
Audio, recordings of St. John's songs sung by children from the Steiner School in Brussels (Sint-Janskruidlaan) are played through speakers
For the Garden Days at Nesse, I presented Sein Vater ist die Sonne, und seine Mutter ist der Mond. Der Wind trug es in seinem Bauche, und seine Amme ist die Erde, a work created for Publiek Park 2025 at the Botanic Garden Meise.
The work was originally presented in the historic Victoria greenhouse, or Balatkas, as an installation consisting of an octagonal plexiglass platform holding four preparations made from St. John’s Wort: an ointment, soap, infusion and watercolour. The preparations were distilled from my own harvest and presented in Serax vases obtained from Rotor Deconstruction.
For the presentation at Nesse, the work entered into a new relationship with the garden and its plants. As part of the Think Residency Collegedag on 25 June, I harvested flowering St. John’s Wort from the garden and prepared an oil macerate on site. The flowers were immersed in oil and left in the sun, allowing the oil to slowly take on the characteristic red colour of the plant.
During the opening of the garden on 4 July, the sound work not for ourselves alone was played. The work consists of recordings of St. John’s songs sung by children from the Steiner School in Brussels, located on Sint-Janskruidlaan (St. John’s Wort Street). The title refers to the Latin phrase Non nobis solum, meaning “not for ourselves alone”. At Nesse, the installation, the newly prepared St. John’s Wort oil and the sound work came together in a new constellation, presented within a woven willow structure in the garden.
Presented at Nesse, Terneuzen (NL)
