The Garden and The Hedge is Kulturhus Björkboda’s (KUBU) Finland
International Summer Exhibition & Program
5.6.–31.8.2025
Radio Air Garden
Magz Hall (UK)
Potted plants Copper Coils, (2024-) copy of etching
Electroculture is an experimental gardening technique that uses highly conductive metals like copper to absorb electricity from the air and the earth and transfer it back to plants. Drawing on some of the same principles as the engineer Nikola Tesla’s and other early radiographers used in their wireless energy transmission experiments. Coiled copper wire spirals designed from radio transmitter coils act like an antenna by passively harvesting atmospheric electrical, which is transmitted back to the plants.
Magz Hall (UK)
Potted plants Copper Coils, (2024-) Print of the Etching. A machine for perpetual electrified gardens. Unsigned. Published in Benjamin Martin’s General Magazine (London, 1755)
Electroculture is an experimental gardening technique that uses highly conductive metals like copper to absorb electricity from the air and the earth and transfer it back to plants. Drawing on some of the same principles as the engineer Nikola Tesla’s and other early radiographers used in their wireless energy transmission experiments. Coiled copper wire spirals act like an antenna by passively harvesting atmospheric electrical, which is transmitted back to the plants. This technique used to aim at promoting plant health and growth. In the early 1900s the French scientist Justin Christofleau (1925) published his findings on the technique, which brought wider attention to the technique, which is now used with varying degrees of success by gardeners and growers.
Following electroculture designs, Magz Hall connects the practice to her long-standing exploration in radio art practices. To create a bespoke set of copper structures, whose design is influenced by radio transmitter coils. The coils will be used to support potted plants that will sit in the Kubu garden. Plants selected for this garden have been chosen for their pollution cleansing properties in partnership with Kubu’s founder and gardener Sari Kippilä. Alongside the garden, an 18th century etching of the electroculture designs will be on display in the gallery.
Sound artist Magz Hall is known for her work in radio art, expanded radio and sculpture, wireless technology across the spectrum and podcasts. She successfully lobbied for community arts radio in the UK and was a founder of London arts station Resonance FM. She established Radio Arts an independent artists’ group who promote radio as a site for creative experimentation in 2001. A lecturer and researcher at Canterbury Christ Church University. She has a practice-based PhD in expanded radio art from UAL (2015) and was awarded an Oram Award for her expanded practice to date. https://magzhall.com/
The Garden and The Hedge is Kulturhus Björkboda’s (KUBU) inaugural international summer exhibition and programme, developed in partnership with the artist and researcher Teresa Dillon. Set in a former school, KUBU’s location on the island of Kemiönsaari/Kimitoön, in the Southwest of Finland, in the UNESCO Archipelago Sea Biosphere Reserve, is the perfect location for exploring our relations to gardens, earth, soil and land.
Marking the first in a series of interrelated programmes that take the elements (soil, water, wind, fire and aether), as their starting point, The Garden and The Hedge is timed with Kimitoön’s 700th anniversary. Drawing on the island’s rich history of soil-based livelihoods—from farming to mining. The summer programme showcases 35 individual art works, performances, workshops and interventions. Inviting reflection on soil health, boundaries, resilience, and our responsibilities to the living land.
Magz Hall 
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