‘Land Line’ is an interactive sculpture integrated into an old Cherry tree in The Walled Garden, featuring re-engineered vintage phone handsets that activate audio playback when lifted. Each handset is secured to the tree, inviting participants to rest in the large branches. This setup creates an intimate ambiance, allowing participants to engage in a personal listening experience while acknowledging that others are sharing in the same ritual.

The audio content draws from the artist’s experience with ‘The Red Thread,’ a radio project based on interviews with strangers across Glasgow, combining their stories with music. In contrast, ‘Land Line’ seeks wisdom from participants, underlining the notion that we are all interconnected through ancestral knowledge. Just as animals exhibit instinctual behaviours, humans possess a collective wisdom that is deeply embedded in our genetic makeup. Participants are invited to share truths they instinctively recognise, contributing both recorded and written responses. Early contributions include reflections like “creativity is essential to understanding myself” and “everything passes, always much sooner than I think.”

The final audio will blend original recordings with children reading select written responses, creating a cyclical narrative that highlights the universality and continuity of wisdom across generations. Each phone connection leads to varied questions, encouraging listeners to linger and explore as long as they desire. Visually, the installation features wires that appear to rise from the earth, reinforcing the metaphor of wisdom emerging from the ground beneath the listener.