SOME LAST PLANTING VIDEOS AND A TYING UP OF LOOSE ENDS (ONE MONTH LATER)

Here in Melbourne, back in the routines of work and home, I feel very distant from this project. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to return to it and conclude it properly. I started off this blog thinking about how problematic it is to designate a beginning to a process oriented project. It seems that finding the point at which it finally ends is just as hard.

It’s only now that I’ve been able to sit down and put together the footage from the midnight planting experiment of the 16th. Originally I’d planned for this to be screened at the end, with the botanical tours, but time ran out. (Here is a version to watch now, as well as some more planting earlier in the day – as a final gesture.)

The pips sown in coffee cups and the cuttings in water, along with the walking diagram, remained in the window of Alterations during March. On Wednesday, Laura informs me, these remnants from my residency were finally cleared away to make room for the next project. She also tells me that something has begun to sprout in one of the cups with the plum pips; though it seems unlikely it is a plum – probably a weed which germinated in the soil I took from the flower beds. However, I hope, with all the positive lunar effects on these plantings, that some day there will be a plum tree growing somewhere around Plimmer Steps, or beyond.

My three weeks at Alterations were incredibly rich in experiences, though not all of these came through on the blog. I met wonderful people in this truly great city, had an inspiring dialogue with Andrea and felt reinvigorated in my practice. Many thanks to all!