from Mind Games, curated by Michael Nannery in conjunction with LB PUMP, 2017.
Photo credit: Nicole Goudarzian
On the night of October 21st, 2017, Apologetic Garden participants wrote down their personal apologies on a piece of paper, sealed them inside a handmade envelop along with a few seeds of various vegetables harvested from our garden. They were then planted in a garden bed, which I have since been tending to everyday. The apologies have sprouted, and still growing strongly. Track the progress of #apologeticgarden here.
Apologetic Garden started as a simple envelop, with "I am sorry" printed on top (the original version can be viewed here). It doesn't happen often enough, but whenever I have an itch to organize my mess, I always excavate a stack of letters from my late mother, along with a small stash of my unsent letters to her. This happens to a lot of letters I meant to post, and while it is usually harmless, this particular stash will never make it to the hands of my mother. Starting with this stash, I have countless unsaid apologies that haunts the back of my mind. Perhaps everyone does — a guilt we cannot quite communicate with anyone. I hope Apologetic Garden could become an attempt for us to reconcile our inner guilt, and create something meaningful out of it.