At the heart of the installation lies a huge collage piece. Based on a relief from 668-631 BCE, it depicts Assyrian gardens in Nineveh that are thought to predate the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. From this central point then, the rest of the exhibition bursts, as Rakowitz expands the borders and gives life to more possibilities. Just as he hopes to bring together communities (aided by the different teas you are encouraged to try), the garden continues to grow and take root further until its end date on the 26th May 2024.
Upon entering the room, you are greeted with a sea of warm light and soft shadows cast by the huge ceiling windows. The wood also offers a mellow, complimentary addition to the space, accentuating the lush greenery that populates the area. Crucially, the mezzanine overlooking the gallery allows you to view the work from a different angle – it is here where the expansion from the central relief and the people’s hard work becomes more tangible. This environment where everything feels suspended in time, where possibilities leak out of every corner, but where there also feels more could be added, allows you to begin to understand the effects of the liminality that displaced people undergo.
As seen with his other work, such as The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, a project started in 2006 wherein Rakowitz’ and his team recreate lost artifacts destroyed by the US led invasion of Iraq, this exhibition is all about giving a voice to those without platforms. Covering the main relief and sculptures that are dotted around the room, food wrappers from different parts of the world are unmistakeable. They offer a source of comforting familiarity to those that miss these products from their homes and a reminder to the rest of the loss that these people feel.
In an interview on the Baltic Gallery website, Rakowitz talks of wanting to convey both what it “means to be homesick for a place you were forced to leave and to be homesick for the place you are trying to stay” (https://baltic.art/whats-on/va-michael-rakowitz-the-waiting-gardens-of-the-north/). Already having suffered one severed connection, the feelings of homesickness are made all the worse when fitting into a new place is a daunting task.
That is why the continual growth of this artwork is so important. Familiar plants from these people’s homelands become stronger and a literal bigger part of the space they inhabit. It is a hopeful wish that whilst they watch the plants they helped sow thrive, they too may begin to feel rooted in and expand the edges of, their new community.
