Hidden is a research and moving image project on the relationship between hidden disability and the companion-working plant. It marks a new trajectory in my practice that explores vegetal narratives concurrent in humans and plants, tracing colonial patterns of medicinal plant travel in the longer term.
It began as Tears on my leaves (above - 2020, 1min 42secs, single screen HD video, sound) - a tiny video portrait of the medicinal plant Callisia Fragrans endemic to Mexico. Her leaves contain flavonoids and phytosterols resulting in antibacterial and anaesthetic properties. I grow the plant at home and make a tincture from her leaves to help ease muscle and nerve pain caused by fibromyalgia. While Callisia's 'tears' are a result of guttation whereby droplets of sap form along the edges of leaves of some vascular plants, this first person narrative from the point of view of the plant suggest symbiotic human-plant entanglements.
Music by Samuel Holloway.
Tears on my leaves premiered as part Chlorophilia exhibition at APT Gallery, Deptford, 2-6 December 2020 curated by Paul Malone and Nicola Rae. Fibromyalgia is a neurological condition that manifests in physical pain and sensitivity affecting the entire body.
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Soft Forest is the most recent continuation of Hidden project. It is a text piece that was first presented at Uprooting the Anthropocene Symposium, 22 July 2021, organised by TORCH, Oxford / Susannah Bain, Molly Masterson, and Huw Jones.
Download Soft Forest PDF here / large print PDF here.
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There are many sources - books, people, places that have informed Soft Forest, but most importantly they are:
Matters of Care, Maria Puig de la Bellacasa
The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben
The Plant Messiah, Carlos Magdalena
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Shunryu Suzuki, available at https://bit.ly/3x08XwJ
my grandfather
filmmaker Noor Afshan Mizra
Master Shi Heng Yi's ongoing practice www.shihengyi.online
Lake Farm Country Park, Hillingdon, London, UK
Nettlebed Common, Oxfordshire, UK
Palm House, Kew Gardens, London, UK
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The next stage of filming with Callisia is underway! Working with my remote collaborator and friend, artist Sonia Levy (microscopic filming).
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Botanical Speculations, 21 October 2021 hosted by Dr. Giovanni Aloi. We talked modular pots, pots as architecture, ability difference, zen influences, botanical touch, more than human intimacy, decolonisation, and of course Callisia Fragrans and my project Hidden, and the many intertwining ways in between. Here you can watch the latest edit of the video work component and hear me read Soft Forest.
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