KEPT [AMENDS]
Marta Ferracin
| Opens on Mar 7 until Mar 29 | Fri, Sat & Sun
KEPT [AMENDS]
Through time consuming actions - harvesting, separating, assembling and burning the 'Cardiospermum grandiflorum noxious vine' -, the artist embodies the ecological legacy and colonial reparation for a native environment’s redemption.
Through time consuming actions - harvesting, separating, assembling and burning the 'Cardiospermum grandiflorum noxious vine' -, the artist embodies the ecological legacy and colonial reparation for a native environment’s redemption.
KEPT [AMENDS]
In Kept [amends] (2026), Ferracin asks us to reconsider what it means to introduce exotic species in a foreign country to create beauty or familiar recollections without acknowledging possible environmental consequences.
During the early colonial era in Australia, the ornamental vine 'Cardiospermum
grandiflorum' was introduced to Australia to decorate gardens. The invasive nature of the plant was disregarded, resulting in its usurpation of the native Australian bush.
Ferracin has observed for years the climbing balloon vine suffocating the native Casuarina equisetifolia (Australian Pine) growing along the river system and habitat where she lives.
Her amends are to rewild Casuarina tree mindful of the important environmental role it plays in stabilizing riverbanks and fixing nitrogen.
By gathering, collecting, assembling 'Cardiospermum grandiflorum' stems, seeds and seed pods into aesthetic growing shapes, Ferracin wants to mark the importance of past, present and future choices concerning introduced species.
The process consists of six months of manual work in harvesting the vine, separating its seeds from the pods and creating repetitive ornamental seedling surfaces and soft pods sculptures.
Through these slow time actions, the artist embodies the ecological legacy and colonial reparation for a native environmental redemption culminating with the final cathartic act of burning the entire artwork into an enclosed pit, once ending the show.
In Kept [amends], Ferracin use masses of material mixed to organic filaments to mimic the invasive and dense growing behaviour of the noxious climber vine. This, to suggest a feeling of insidious intrusion and enveloping attraction within the Articulate small-scale gallery space. The immersive work is staged in the same way the vine occupies the space in nature by stealing air, light and essential nutrients to the surrounding native Casuarina trees.
On the walls, video screens are witnessing the 'Cardiospermum grandiflorum' vine growing onto the Casuarina native trees within the habitat while integrating shootings of the slow time process in making the artwork.
The sonic presences sense the seeds falling – imagine them falling onto the soil –, causing an emphasised concussion and generating a deep resonating bass sound to symbolise the irreversible colonising’s damage.
In contrast the gentle acoustic lyrical murmur of the wind whispering through the needle segmented foliage of the Casuarina tree named after its sound as the “whistling tree”.
"What is that dirge-like murmur that I hear
Like the sea breaking on a shingle beach?
It is the tree's lament, an eerie speech,
That haply to the Unknown Land may reach".
From the third stanza of the poem "Our Casuarina-Tree" by Toru Dutt.
In Kept [amends] (2026), Ferracin asks us to reconsider what it means to introduce exotic species in a foreign country to create beauty or familiar recollections without acknowledging possible environmental consequences.
During the early colonial era in Australia, the ornamental vine 'Cardiospermum
grandiflorum' was introduced to Australia to decorate gardens. The invasive nature of the plant was disregarded, resulting in its usurpation of the native Australian bush.
Ferracin has observed for years the climbing balloon vine suffocating the native Casuarina equisetifolia (Australian Pine) growing along the river system and habitat where she lives.
Her amends are to rewild Casuarina tree mindful of the important environmental role it plays in stabilizing riverbanks and fixing nitrogen.
By gathering, collecting, assembling 'Cardiospermum grandiflorum' stems, seeds and seed pods into aesthetic growing shapes, Ferracin wants to mark the importance of past, present and future choices concerning introduced species.
The process consists of six months of manual work in harvesting the vine, separating its seeds from the pods and creating repetitive ornamental seedling surfaces and soft pods sculptures.
Through these slow time actions, the artist embodies the ecological legacy and colonial reparation for a native environmental redemption culminating with the final cathartic act of burning the entire artwork into an enclosed pit, once ending the show.
In Kept [amends], Ferracin use masses of material mixed to organic filaments to mimic the invasive and dense growing behaviour of the noxious climber vine. This, to suggest a feeling of insidious intrusion and enveloping attraction within the Articulate small-scale gallery space. The immersive work is staged in the same way the vine occupies the space in nature by stealing air, light and essential nutrients to the surrounding native Casuarina trees.
On the walls, video screens are witnessing the 'Cardiospermum grandiflorum' vine growing onto the Casuarina native trees within the habitat while integrating shootings of the slow time process in making the artwork.
The sonic presences sense the seeds falling – imagine them falling onto the soil –, causing an emphasised concussion and generating a deep resonating bass sound to symbolise the irreversible colonising’s damage.
In contrast the gentle acoustic lyrical murmur of the wind whispering through the needle segmented foliage of the Casuarina tree named after its sound as the “whistling tree”.
"What is that dirge-like murmur that I hear
Like the sea breaking on a shingle beach?
It is the tree's lament, an eerie speech,
That haply to the Unknown Land may reach".
From the third stanza of the poem "Our Casuarina-Tree" by Toru Dutt.
www.martaferracin.com
@martaferracin
Marta Ferracin Facebook https://www.facebook.com/marta.ferracin.3/
Kept [amends], 2026, 'Cardiospermum grandiflorum' seeds glued onto Mulberry handmade paper
