My work has been focused around my relationship with my late grandfather, my memories of him, and his relationship to nature. Amongst the most potent of these memories have been times we spent together in his garden when I was a child. I remember the smell of tomatoes growing and the sound of his radio playing as he worked in his greenhouse. His nurturing personality allowed him to create a home for nature much like he did for me and my family. I have presented artefacts belonging to him and other relating objects that each suggest their own story.
I wanted to create a space that reflected my own experience and memories of being with my papa in his garden. Filled with tomato plants, creating a scent that will always remind me of him. The sound of his radio playing, country music, his favourite, cassette tapes sit between plant pots. An abundance of plants, cover a potting bench inspired by a 1970s organ my Papa once played, I would sit beside him as he taught me how to play. Now covered in his favourite plants, begonias, sweet peas and pansy’s. 78 seedlings represent each year of his life, paired with copper plant tags, etched with phrases once frequently used by my Papa. The smell of soil beneath your feet radiate in the space, a symbol of life and death as my Papa has returned to the earth. His wheelbarrow sits behind the greenhouse filled with seed potatoes for people to take home and plant in their own garden, a poetic offering inspired by my Papa as he always wanted to help people and gave away vegetables to his friends and neighbours.
I partly engraved the greenhouse glass in handwritten text taken from my Papas personal diaries. Each piece of text highlights an aspect of his daily life from planning his garden to taking walks in his favourite place. With this I paired each pane of glass with his handwriting, with my own, to suggest a short and poetic narrative. I worked with text as I found it was a good way for me to suggest a narrative paired with found objects.
A birdhouse, a song, a memory of you. Based upon a birdhouse I found in my Papas garden, I have created a sound installation with birdsong and recorded conversations. A home my grandfather built for the birds, a meaningful symbol reflecting his nurturing and caring personality. The sound piece consists of a collection of overlapping conversations between family members and myself reminiscing memories of my grandfather, birdsong plays from my Papas original birdhouse in the background. I feel it was important for me to use used scrap materials to build the birdhouses and organ inspired bench to reflect a ‘hash bash’ aesthetic. This reflects the way my Papa would make things, always using scrap materials and re-using as much objects and materials as possible.
Caitlyn Vesey 