Why look at plants? : the botanical emergence in contemporary art / written and edited by Giovanni Aloi, Caroline Picard, Lucy Davis

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Aloi, Giovanni.

Picard, Caroline.

Davis, Lucy, 1970-

Series:

Critical Plant Studies 5.

Critical plant studies : philosophy, literature, culture ; Volume 5

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Plants in art.

Arts, Modern--20th century--Themes, motives.

Arts, Modern.

Arts, Modern--21st century--Themes, motives.

Plants and civilization.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (306 pages).

Place of Publication:

Leiden : Brill, [2019]

Summary:

Why Look at Plants? proposes a thought-provoking and fascinating look into the emerging cultural politics of plant-presence in contemporary art. Through the original contributions of artists, scholars, and curators who have creatively engaged with the ultimate otherness of plants in their work, this volume maps and problematizes new intra-active, agential interconnectedness involving human-non-human biosystems central to artistic and philosophical discourses of the Anthropocene. Plant’s fixity, perceived passivity, and resilient silence have relegated the vegetal world to the cultural background of human civilization. However, the recent emergence of plants in the gallery space constitutes a wake-up-call to reappraise this relationship at a time of deep ecological and ontological crisis. Why Look at Plants? challenges readers’ pre-established notions through a diverse gathering of insights, stories, experiences, perspectives, and arguments encompassing multiple disciplines, media, and methodologies.

Contents:

Preliminary Material

Introduction: Why Look at Plants? / Giovanni Aloi

1 Lost in the Post-Sublime Forest / Giovanni Aloi

2 The Humblest Props Now Play a Role / Caroline Picard

3 Ungrid-able Ecologies: Becoming Sensor in a Black Oak Savannah / Natasha Myers

4 An Open Book of Grass / Jenny Kendler

5 Trees: Upside-Down, Inside-Out, and Moving / Giovanni Aloi

6 Animation, Animism … Dukun Dukun and DNA / Lucy Davis

7 Tree Wound Portraits / Shannon Lee Castleman

8 Contested Sites: Forest as Uncommon Ground / Greg Ruffing

9 Quercus velutina, Art of Fiction, No. 11111011 / Lindsey French

10 Falling from Grace / Giovanni Aloi

11 Hortus Conclusus: The Garden of Earthly Mind / Wendy Wheeler

12 Eden’s Heirs: Biopolitics and Vegetal Affinities in the Gardens of Literature / Joela Jacobs

13 Thoreau’s Beans / Michael Marder

14 The Greenhouse Effects / Giovanni Aloi

15 Solarise / Luftwerk

16 The Glass Shields the Eyes of the Plant: Darwin’s Glasshouse Study / Heidi Norton

17 The Lichen Museum / Laurie Palmer

18 Hyperplant Shelf-Life / Giovanni Aloi

19 Life in the Aisles / Linda Tegg

20 Greenbots Where the Grass Is Greener: An Interview with Katherine Behar / Katherine Behar , Fatma Çolakoğlu and Ulya Soley

21 Home Depot Throwing Out Plants / Various Contributors

22 Presence, Bareness, and Being-With / Giovanni Aloi

23 Houseplants as Fictional Subjects / Susan McHugh

24 Seeing Green: The Climbing Other / Dawn Sanders

25 Plant Radio / Amanda White

26 Psychoactives and Biogenetics / Giovanni Aloi

27 Of Plants and Robots: Art, Architecture and Technoscience for Mixed Societies / Monika Bakke

28 Boundary Plants / Sara Black

29 The Illustrated Herbal / Joshi Radin

30 (Brief) Encounters / Giovanni Aloi

31 Places of Maybe: Plants “Making Do” Without the Belly of the Beast / Andrew S. Yang

32 The Neophyte / Lois Weinberger

33 Herbarium Perrine: Interview with Mark Dion / Mark Dion and Giovanni Aloi

34 Burning Flowers: Interview with Mat Collishaw / Mat Collishaw and Giovanni Aloi

35 A Program for Plants: In Conversation, Coda / Giovanni Aloi , Brian M. John , Linda Tegg and Joshi Radin

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9789004375253 (electronic book)

90-04-37525-2

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004375253 DOI