Christopher Bassi

The Garden and The Sea

7 April - 1 May 2021

The Garden and The Sea

Shells tangled in the roots

On an altar of thick vegetation.

Green diaphane hands

Suspend spheres that mimic the sun.

Pawpaw for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Afterwards, wearing the sun’s long shadow

Find water and cast your body like a net.

Let the sea beat your longing out of you.

A mother, of pearl and of mine.

We share these aquamarine veins,

Combed seaweed hair,

And the history of an ocean.

In the amber hours,

Smoke billows from a kerosene drum.

You’ve let the day grow upwards on you,

Until, in the end, you too become a mango tree.

Give yourself permission to grow

Take time owed to you.

Let the air form a salted crust

And remember that rest is part of the revolution.

This is where you’ve come to find yourself.

In the garden and the sea.

The Garden and The Sea is a series composed on imagery related to the artists familiar histories and connection to the landscape of the Far North Queensland and the Torres Strait. Moving between themes of personal histories, family, and reflections of the self, the work carves out abstract locales of shifting context as an important motif to represent the idea of “home” as tied to an emotional and physical sense of place. Simultaneously intimate and universal, the works speak to the fragmented nature of both love and belonging.