During covid, Kathleen Bitetti’s neighbor cut down trees that had shaded her South Boston yard, so she began filling the small dirt plot behind the triple decker in which she lives with plants from local nurseries, turning her yard into a lush haven.
“Gardening, whether outdoors or indoors, is for me is a way to de-stress/de-rage and to enjoy the wonders of nature,” the artist writes of her multimedia installation “Gardening Because Murder Is Wrong” at Boston’s Gallery Kayafas from April 5 to May 11, 2024.
On the back wall of exhibition, “Neighbors,” depicts “pollinators in my garden and celebrates neighbors all kinds,” plus knit bees, ceramic watering cans, cut flowers, and used how-to-garden books.
On the left wall is “Flowers for Clara,” which collects iPhone photos since 2020. When covid sent Bitetti’s office home to work remotely, she began exchanging morning texts with her co-worker Clara, who often wears floral-patterned shirts to work and lives on a street whose name references flowers. Soon Bitetti was adding photos of flowers in her garden, from her walks, from her travels. Bitetti writes that it “celebrates relationships we have and grow with others.”
“Welcome to Wonderland,” on the right wall, offers photos of the garden she’s begun on the front steps of her apartment building plus figurines representing characters from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”
The show’s title, “Gardening Because Murder Is Wrong,” Bitetti writes, “has become a catch phrase for many of my colleagues and close friends. We often share images of the plants we buy or plan to buy with each other. I also have found that when I share this phrase with others, particularly other women, a knowing smile and twinkle in their eyes is shared. And when the phrase is shared with those who are gardeners/are flora caregivers, they often impart a knowing laugh.”
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