You Hold their Breath (Ceiba Pentandra), 2026

Collage on wallpaper

In Gustavia on Saint Barthélemy, a tree stands in a prominent spot by the harbour: a kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra). It is one of the first things travellers come across when arriving from the sea. Stories told on the island and a plaque at the foot of the tree condemning slavery suggest that it may have been used as a place of punishment, despite a lack of historical evidence. The tree’s location and the thorns covering its young trunks have contributed to the idea that it may have served as a warning to people arriving on the island.

The kapok tree appears in many mythologies and legends from West Africa, South America and the Caribbean. According to many traditions, the tree connects the spiritual world with the earthly world. It is also associated with forces that may be threatening or ominous, and in some traditions the tree should not be felled. Today, the kapok tree at Gustavia Harbour is a popular spot for eating lunch. It is also a popular location for wedding photographs – from certain angles, a branch forms the shape of a heart. Here, Mangalanayagam pieces together the kapok tree through a collage of photographs taken from different positions and angles. The tree is made present in the exhibition without being reduced to a single representation.

The botanist Beronda Montgomery has described the way old trees carry carbon from the breaths of previous generations through photosynthesis, and can thereby be understood as living witnesses to history. Mangalanayagam sees the tree as a witness to Saint Barthélemy’s violent history, but also as an involuntary actor in this violence: a bearer of memory in a landscape of forgetting.