he Hanging Gardens & Other Tales was a neighbourhood-specific installation created at Carriageworks Arts Centre from pot plants loaned by local residents, as part of the Underbelly 08 Public Arts Lab + Festival. A collaboration with Diego Bonetto, the project involved collecting stories from each plant’s owner, and hanging both stories and plants using the remnant structural components of this historic converted railyard.

As each plant was delivered to our reception desk, a registration form with care instructions was completed and filed and an individual ink drawing was made. Their home location was marked on a 1989 map of the area, and they were then added to the installation to be looked after for the duration of the two-week project. The exhibition is currently being migrated to a blog and will eventually become a print publication featuring the drawings and hand-written stories.