Test Garden Artist-in-Residence Program

The Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation (MAP Co) and the University of Melbourne's joint artist-in-residency program engaged artists to work alongside researchers and respond to themes of ecology, sustainability and biodiversity explored through the Melbourne Arts Precinct Plant Trials.

Through these residencies, artists worked alongside researchers from the Faculty of Science at the University’s Burnley Campus and had access to a studio and the Plant Trials, as well as access to living botanical collections, nurseries and glasshouses, and a wide range of materials from the University’s archival and art collections. Embedded in the horticultural campus, the artists connected with academics, ecologists and botanists, discovered the nuances of the plants, and immersed themselves in the research project.

Inspired by the research, the artists created work that gave a creative voice to the Plant Trials and related concerns around ecological sustainability and renewal. In collaboration with the University’s Faculties, curriculum and public outcomes were produced including education programs with University of Melbourne students from a range of disciplines, exhibitions, publications, and events in the Test Garden at Fed Square.

The two visual artists selected were interdisciplinary artist Keg de Souza and sculptor Francis Carmody. Keg de Souza is an architecturally trained artist of Goan ancestry who creates work that explores plant politics, themes of displacement and the stories of plants, people and place, while Francis Carmody’s practice traces social and natural networks as a form of speculative storytelling through a variety of creative mediums. Read more about their residencies and outcomes below.

Follow @laak.boorndap and visit Test Garden for regular updates on residency outcomes.

A portrait of a man wearing all black standing on a small white filing cabinet in their studio, next to a desk with a computer on it, the wall behind them is all pine board. — Francis Carmody

A portrait of artist Keg de Souza, she is sitting on a stool wearing a floral blouse, her hands are in her lap and she has a pensive look on her face looking up and away from the camera. — Keg de Souza

Close up of seedlings in black plastic seed trays. — Plant trials

Compressions

Hidden amongst the dense foliage of the Test Garden, visitors could find a new sculptural installation by artist-in-residence Francis Carmody – a series of works that explored the physical imprint of time on matter, reflecting on research into plants and material form.

Compressions was a new public artwork at Fed Square, and the first public outcome of the Test Garden artist-in-residence program.

The work comprised a series of small-scale relief sculptures installed within the Test Garden, which connected ongoing garden experiments and scientific research underway at the University of Melbourne’s Burnley Campus with the garden.

Developed in dialogue with Dr Dean Schrieke’s research from the Plant Trials at Burnley, the works translated his findings and the diversity of the garden’s species into sculptural form.

Each relief was cast and carved from onsite materials including beeswax, ceramic and experimental substrates. These processes collapsed geological, botanical and sculptural time scales, folding the logic of growth, pressure and decay into a single surface.

The project mirrored the shared ethos of the artist’s studio and the scientific method, where questioning, experimentation, observation and iteration form parallel ways of understanding the world around us. By bridging these two modes of inquiry, Compressions proposed the Test Garden as both a site and a method for a living experiment in how matter records time.

Close up of a small sculptural tile artwork placed in a garden, a circular tile imprinted with shapes, and yellow flowers are sitting over the tile. — Compressions by Francis Carmody, installed in the Test Garden at Fed Square. Photo by James Henry

Close up of small sculptural tile artworks placed in the soil of a garden. The sculptures are surrounded by succulent plants. — Compressions by Francis Carmody, installed in the Test Garden at Fed Square. Photo by James Henry

Close up of small sculptural tile artwoeks place in the soil of a garden. From left to right: white square, burnt orange oval, mustard square. — Compressions by Francis Carmody, installed in the Test Garden at Fed Square. Photo by James Henry

Close up of a small sculptural tile artwoek placed in the soil of a garden. A black square with a line imprinted on it. — Compressions by Francis Carmody, installed in the Test Garden at Fed Square. Photo by James Henry

Close up of a small sculptural tile artwork placed in the soil of a garden. The tile is square and white with shapes imprinted on it. — Compressions by Francis Carmody, installed in the Test Garden at Fed Square. Photo by James Henry

Garden of Strategies

Over the course of a year, Test Garden artist-in-residence Keg de Souza worked with Melbourne Arts Precinct Plant Trials researchers Associate Professor Claire Farrell and Dr Dean Schrieke, and delved into the University of Melbourne's Burnley archives to explore the lesser-told stories of plants.

Keg’s artwork, Garden of Strategies, was created during her residency and was recently on display in the exhibition The Measured Garden. Inspired by magic lantern slides found in the archives at Burnley, Keg crafted a series of glass slides featuring pressed plant specimens taken from the Plant Trials. Each slide contains handwritten snippets of knowledge about the plant – from etymology and folklore to leaf traits and adaptations.

Curated by Julia Murphy, The Measured Garden uncovered some of the stories behind the plant research and artistic collaboration between Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation (MAP Co) and the University of Melbourne, designed to support the future success of Laak Boorndap – an 18,000 square metre naturalistic garden being built on an elevated deck in the city’s arts precinct.

Keg de Souza, Garden of Strategies 2026. Commissioned by Melbourne Arts Precinct with the University of Melbourne. Photography by Christian Capurro.

Acknowledgements

The artist-in-residence program, facilitated by MAP Co and the University of Melbourne’s Burnley campus and Art Museums, is supported as part of the Victorian Government’s Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation project. The program offered yearly studio residencies to visual artists whose practice was informed by a deep interest in plants, horticulture and ecology.

The Melbourne Arts Precinct Plant Trials is a partnership between The University of Melbourne (Burnley Campus), MAP Co, Development Victoria, design practice Hassell, plant practice Super Bloom and international horticulturalists James Hitchmough and Nigel Dunnett. The Test Garden at Fed Square is supported by Bupa.