Topiarius, cotton on linen, 150 x 250 cm, 2023, detail

My interest in gardens and topiary has been growing over the last few years. I decided to create Topiarus, cotton embroidery on linen, like an alphabet book, extracted from garden pictures and different specimens of topiary.

Topiary designs are named spiral tree, ball on pedestal, two tier pyramid, bird on round pyramid and so on.

Beyond the obvious game between Nature and Culture I prefer to think about them like forms coming from a prehistoric time. We have imposed forms on a living tree making them sculptures but where do the shapes come from? From Nature? Did those designs impose themselves upon us?

Time and a constant care with sharpened eyes for shaped trees remind us our human conditions, doomed to disappear.

/Elvire Soyez, 2023