Forsaken garden

Anila Rubiku Forsaken Garden, 2021 Dimensions: cm. 36 ⌀ Embroidery on silk , film, 2 drawing charcoal on A4 paper Installation view exhibition La Tendresse Subversive, 2022 at Frac Centre-Val de Loire Orleans, France.Ph. M. Argyroglo.

FORSAKEN GARDEN

The poet Swinburne wrote a poem titled “A forsaken garden by the sea”. In it he describes the emotional emptiness he sees and wonders what happened there, what dreams and promises were made and broken there and what pleasure it must have given before it was abandoned.

In Turkey, Greece, Albania Italy…where I was by the sea, there exists half-finished dreams as uncompleted villas. These were either illegal or the owner ran out of money. But mostly illegal and built with greed in mind. They are just greying, sea wind beaten cement now with rusty reinforcing steel jutting out at grotesque angles. Abandoned, like Swinburne’s Garden. Forsaken dreams, hopes, wishes, aspirations gone. No chance for love to be admitted, be pledged or even to be made, no children, no life. All snuffed out by coincidence.