In Octo­ber 2024, I spent four weeks immersed in the world of Ped­vāle Art Park and the sur­round­ing land­scape of Sabile town, explor­ing as much of Latvia as I could, espe­cial­ly the ever-present rev­er­ence for nature. Dur­ing this time, I spoke to a vari­ety of peo­ple, lis­tened to fairy tales and leg­ends, and learnt about pagan beliefs and rit­u­als. I also vis­it­ed 400-year-old sacred lin­den and oak trees, to which sac­ri­fices are still made today. I spent time around the camp­fire, walked through mead­ows and streets, and col­lect­ed sto­ries and items from the ground to bring to the art space. This includ­ed the large branch from the park that had been torn off by a storm. Final­ly, all these things and impres­sions came togeth­er to cre­ate this work. It is a work about place and time, rep­re­sent­ing a spe­cif­ic peri­od. Work­ing on it was a bit like med­i­tat­ing on the tree — the tree as a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of some­thing greater. In the end, I called the work „A Noc­tur­nal Patient” – who or what is being treat­ed here, I leave up to you.

The Ped­vāle Art Park was found­ed and is run by the Lat­vian artist Ojārs Feld­bergs, and is a treat for any­one inter­est­ed in land art and stone sculp­ture. Thank you, Ojārs!