Garden of Shadows | Arts Council of Wales

When choosing content, I really wanted to take on the theme of light in a literal way, and that choice is Garden of Shadows by artist Jony Easterby and his company Trophic Cascade. The work is an installation and light show presented at the Irish National Botanic Gardens in Dublin in September 2023. The artist was inspired after taking part in a residency on an old farm near Presteigne. He was housed in a building without electricity where he had the opportunity to learn more about the movement and quality of natural light and how it interacts with the landscape casting shades from the garden onto the building. The work (see video below) is a celebration of the beauty of nature and a way of calming the mind while thinking about the future of the planet and its people.

In trying to analyse what exactly enables us to engender hope, from a visual perspective we would often turn to light and the concept of light and what it represents. Certainly, one could argue that there is a spiritual element to this, but from our point of view, the aim with this choice was to try to convey this idea of light and hope in a literal way. In other words, to show the power of light to illuminate the darkness, to light up the path and to remind us that there is beauty all around us, even during bleak times (see photo below). Jony received financial support from Wales Arts International to carry out research for this project, but not for the finished work seen in the video and photo.