Deborah’s Garden (1st Iteration), 2025
Native plants from Cameroon, Senegal and Canada (or country where the work is presented), red bronze sculptures, soundscape, olfactive scent
2.7m diameter x 50cm high
Grounded in an ongoing exploration of traditional West and Central African bioclimatic architecture and indigenous plant knowledge, this inaugural edition of Deborah’s Garden unfolds as a contemplative space at the crossroads of design, ecology, and traditional herbalism. Multidisciplinary artist Mpoka is deeply committed to the transformative possibilities of spatial practice—positioning land stewardship and communal settings like gardens as catalysts for rethinking belonging. Through this immersive project, she asks: How might gardens and built environments serve as spaces of collective care—where stories of displacement and resilience are held, resisted, and reimagined?
At the center of the circular brick installation, native plants from Cameroon, Senegal as well as Canada can be found—species traditionally used for medicinal and spiritual healing, including sweetgrass, sorrel, indigo and kinkéliba. Within this living environment, two red bronze sculptures, Buried Seed I and II—cast from Mpoka’s own body and crafted at the bronze master workshop of Makhone Diop in Dakar—lie partially submerged beneath soil and plants, invoking sustained vitality and ongoing renewal. A 30-minute soundscape of vernacular recordings and folk chants—some traditionally sung by Cameroonian women during manual labor—breathes life into Deborah’s Garden, immersing visitors in a rich auditory tapestry.
In this way, Deborah’s Garden becomes a living archive—foregrounding not only visual form, but multisensory encounter and community-rooted participation, where people must pause and be present to attune themselves to sound, scent, and visuals. The installation suggests a shared space of reflection—countering colonial erasure and offering the possibility of an architecture of care, grounded in remembrance and collective healing.
