There’s something very cathartic about digging your fingers into the soil, getting down and dirty with mother nature herself. The prolific author Margaret Atwood wrote, ‘In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.’

Artist and curator Tai Snaith is passionate about getting her hands dirty. In fact, she’s curated an entire exhibition based on the cultural examination and community of gardening. Borrowing from the aforementioned Margaret Atwood quote, Snaith’s exhibition, ‘Gardening is not a rational act’, explores the act of gardening, the aesthetic of gardens and finds parallels in the process of art-making.

Sean Meilak, whose sculptural installation ‘Study for a Metaphysical Garden’ (pictured) is on display, says his work ‘looks at the theatrical and psychological space of classical and modernist gardens, exploring the idea of the labyrinth, the metaphysical, and the geometry and order of Italian gardens of Ancient Rome, Renaissance and Baroque periods.’

The exhibition takes place at Abottsford Convent’s c3 Contemporary Artspace and features 10 artists: Eleanor Butt, Kate Daw, Kate Ellis, Eugene Howard, Chaco Kato, Sean Meilak, David Rosetzky, Kent Wilson, Alice Wormald and Tai Snaith herself. All have different relationships with gardening and how it informs their work, with practices that span across sculpture, painting and installation.



‘Gardening is not a rational act’  group exhibition
September 20th to October 20th
Opening night Wednesday, September 20th,  6-8pm
c3 Contemporary Artspace
1 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford, Melbourne