Blacklisted A Planted Allegory Recollections Book

Description:

An artist edition, which contains distinctly textured components. It is a box that contains original images, short poetic narratives, a plastic-coated index sheet, an introductory essay by Glenn Harcourt, and an interview with the artist and curator. It is a record of the 133 invasive plant species that make up this project's collection and is the final result of four years of research.

The stories trace the plants' journey to California and their capricious experiences once they settled into the landscape. The recollections are written from the perspectives of the plants in numerous styles such as travelogue, journal, oral history, letters home, poems, spells, and recipes.

These plants, for the most part, arrived in California as a result of human activity. The narratives they are relating are dual, they speak as much to their precarious place in California's landscape as much as they are also speaking on behalf of their human counterparts. These are the stories of generations of migrants. By anthropomorphizing these plants they are removed from the anonymous grouping of the scientific classification system that they have been organized and represented by in the rest of the project, and are offered individual voices. What the stories of these plants offer us is a reflection of a landscape that is cultural as much as it is botanical.

Blacklisted: A Planted Allegory investigates the distinction between native versus invasive species as determined by the California Invasive Species Advisory Committee, a scientific organization charged with creating a statewide “living list” of invasive species since late 2009. The discourse surrounding a list of “invasive” or “alien” flora and fauna species has interesting and fruitful correlations to policies regarding immigration, multiculturalism and evolving ideas about national identities that are inherently tied to the identity of border cultures. The project allows viewers to engage in a meaningful and nuanced way with how these issues are thought of in direct and applicable terms.

Title:

Blacklisted: A Planted Allegory (Recollections)

Year:

2017

Media:

Box containing distinctly textured papers and plastic coated sheet

Dimensions:

8 1/2” x 6” x 4 1/2” each, 159 pages, edition of 200

Available for sale via PayPal or Venmo through Jenny Yurshansky.

$60, edition of 200