Succulent Fig, 150 x 150cm, watercolour on linen, July 2025, £995

Succulent Fig was painted for the exhibition ‘Costruiamo Paesaggio 4th Edition, paesaggio, paesaggi, pannistesi at Museo MAACK, Casacalenda, July 2025

Ancient, mythological fig, I am surrounded by many of these Neolithic, enigmatic trees, one of the first plants to be cultivated by mankind they exist in a complex co-evolution, symbiotic relationship with the fig wasp, neither can exist without the other, the female wasp enters to lay eggs losing her wings and antenna to never leave. The incredible part is that within the bulbous flesh form lies the flower, it never sees the light of day, this syconium blooms inside itself. What remains is a sweet, gooey honey fruit, soft malleable branches and grand lobed waving, curling leaves. Each fig holds an inner secret. 

‘There was a flower that flowered inward, womb-ward/Now there is a fruit like a ripe womb’. DH Lawrence 

Sumptuous honey sweetness, bulbous streaks. Heart shaped leaves a symbol of flimsy modesty. A keystone Biblical species of which a huge proportion of the ecosystem depends. The succulent fig serves as a potent symbol of abundance, sensuality, fertility and the hidden secrets of nature, introversion, enlightenment and the fall of innocence. 

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.” 
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar 

Plath uses a fig tree as a metaphor for the daunting prospect of choosing where you want your future to be heading. She depicts how she sees her life branching out before her like a fig tree, and how at “the tip of every branch…a wonderful future beckoned and winked”. However, she finds herself unable to decide on just one fig or one future, as it would mean she did not get to choose the others. She “saw sitting at the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death”, missing all the opportunities presented to her and instead watching them “wrinkle and go black, and, one by one… to the ground”. 

https://www.kalenartemaack.com/costruiamopaesaggio

https://www.termoliwild.it/casacalenda-celebra-larte-e-il-paesaggio-con-pannistesi-presentato-il-catalogo-della-iv-edizione-di-costruiamo-paesaggio-tra-emozione-visione-e-partecipazione/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s3-0FwilNU