An Introduction to Plant Interpretation
Group exhibition “You may find yourself in a haunted space”, Ausstellungsraum Klingental, 4.06.—09.07.2023.
Who are plants? How do they live and experience the world? Can we ask them questions?
For the group exhibition “You may find yourself in a haunted space”, the Centre for Plant Interpretation reflected on connections between communicating with ghosts and communicating with plants. When we think about ghostly matters and plant communication, we think about activities that we can’t see, but that can see us, or that are obscure to some, but which others consider a part of everyday life. Both ghosts and plants function as a lens to explore history: They bring into focus distributions of power, and historical actors that have often been ignored in dominant narratives. Plants are everywhere around us, in every breathe we take and bite we eat. Everywhere, plants grow, learn and observe - if we figure out how to ask the right questions, they have a lot to teach us.
The exhibition included plants, a series of posters, and plant labels.
The plants are representatives of plants that can be found in many Swiss households: geraniums of South African origin that have been introduced to Europe in the colonial era, have been extensively genetically modified, and take pride of place as “national garden flowers”, as well as succulents that are popular indoor pot plants, which were also originally introduced from southern Africa and are now cultivated for mass consumption in Europe.
The series of posters, with drawings by artist Salma Price-Nell, offered questions for plants and people: Can you see us? Can you change your flavour? How do you experience time? Do you have a brain? During the exhibition, visitors were invited to write down thoughts and observations onto the posters, participating in a collaborative exploration of plant communication.
In botanical gardens, plant labels function as authoritative devices that frame plants according to Western knowledge systems, usually including their Latin taxonomic name, place of origin, collection reference number, and optionally additional information, like vernacular names or human uses. For the exhibition, we gave plant labels a different use: not as a tool of knowledge presentation but collaborative knowledge production. Visitors were invited to write down questions onto plant labels, and stick the plant labels into the plant pots. The collected questions served as a starting point for a conversation about plant communication during a public roundtable, as well as spontaneously during gatherings of visitors and participating artists.
Destails
Installation with posters, plants and plant labels. Concept by Melanie Boehi and Zayaan Khan, poster art by Salma Price-Nell.
Opening: 03.06.2023, 18:00
Talk: 18.06.2023, 14:00, with Melanie Boehi, Salma Price-Nell and Percy Zvomuya.
https://ausstellungsraum.ch/veranstaltungen/you-may-find-yourself-in-a-haunted-space/
