Description:
Pitzer College Art Galleries invited me to be an Artist-in-Residence during Summer 2014. During that period I hunted for, located, identified, and collected the invasive plants that I found growing on the site. Out of CISAC’s 600 listed alien-invasive plants, I found 133 which I then transplanted; for a month I photographed daily the shadows they cast onto a screen.
The indoor setting was a panacea communal grow lab for the plants, a poor substitute for their natural conditions. These photographs have been transformed into a collapsed, time lapse image. The installation is a life-size projected record of addition and loss. The projection holds the memory of the plant’s shadows, while bearing the trace of their absence.
Inherently there are cultural biases that play into the scientific criteria and discourse around how, why, and by whom plants are considered to be invasive. Semantically the use of such terms as invasive and native are loaded. Humans are a major vector for the introduction of these species. Under scrutiny are government policies regarding management and control of these plants within politically determined borders and attempts to confine complicated organic systems within neatly defined categories. The reasons for identifying alien species vary from being unwelcome because of their competitiveness with native flora, their negative economic impact, aesthetic value, or they are determined as harmful to humans or desirable animals and insects.
Title:
Blacklisted: A Planted Allegory (Asylum)
Year:
2015
Media:
Slide projector, 35mm slide, custom Da-Lite rear projection aluminum framed projection screen
Dimensions:
59” x 88” x 4”
