Costumes for Fruiting Trees -work in development

Waited All Season – late summer , Lakemba NSW – land of the Bidjigal People

Costumes for Fruiting Trees is a creative project that observes and responds to the DIY structures and material coverings of fruiting trees and plants found in suburban yards. These plants are commonly dressed by home gardeners with nylon nets and found materials such as plastic bags and PVC pipping. This seasonal attire is designed to create a synthetic force-field between intended and unintended nature. As a fundamental dynamic, gardening means challenging one possible future over another; a garden excludes certain beings and denies others the chance for life, even as it extends hospitality to some.

This project invites play, conversation and exchange to makes visible the entangled relationship between pest and partner for the home gardener. Enmeshed in this dynamic is the cultivation of place and memories often embodied through the act of growing food. This may be to ignite the kaleidoscope of childhood memories, connect with the land and the seasons or replicate flavours from homelands.

Costumes for Fruiting Trees will be guided by the forces between gardeners and the seasons, with fruiting plants the central player. This makes the timing of each creation never entirely predictable and requires the need to lean-into a long gestation with calculated patience. Each response will be formed through various connections and perspectives on the pest-partner relationship with fruiting plants. This will include creative responses to scouted fruit trees overhanging from fences or visible from front yards, as well as, engagement and collaboration with suburban gardeners. The hope is for some of the creations to be seeded by the coming together of gardener and facilitator (me) to explore creative possibilities for Costumes for Fruiting Trees.

Create a Costume for Fruiting Trees

If you are a home gardener curious to find out more about this creative project or interested in taking part, get in touch with me. I am based in western Sydney. Ability for long-distance travel is limited, but we could find ways to collaborate remotely. Lets chat.

Click here to contact me about being part of the project

Netted banana tree in lush backyard setting. The words Aphids and Birds in Thai script are labelled on the outside of the netted bananas in hand-cut lettering.

large netted fig tree in suburban backyard. In large hand cut text the words UCCELLI BASTA in capital letters are labelled on the outside of the netted tree.

Netted fig tree hanging over suburban colourbond fence. A banner hands over the fence made of the same netted fabric. The caption 'Waited All Season' is written on the banner made from hand-cut fabric text.

detail image of rotting fig caught in a neThe figs are decomposed, brown and not recognisable. There is a fly on the fruit.

A close-up of a Colourbond fence with white nylon netting. The words WAIT are written in large hand-cut fabric. But only WAI are in view. Hanging above is a sanging pouch of net with rotting fruit inside.

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