Tag: Plants and Gardens
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Thinking with Maíz: A Conversation with Vick Quezada and Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra
Artist Vick Quezada and evolutionary biologist Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra both center maíz in their work despite their very different approaches. Together with M. Hamilton, these scholars explore the co-evolution of humans and maiz (corn) through the lenses of cultural history, art and performance, science, and language.
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Learning from Japanese Knotweed in Brussels’s Feral Wetlands
in EssaysIn the abandoned, deindustrialized interstices of Brussels, feral wetlands flourish. Drawing on conversations with residents, Louise Bazelaire explores the history and politics of these liminal spaces through a plant that is loved and hated in equal measure: Japanese knotweed.
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The Tenth Century Equivalent of 🍑 🍆? 🥬.
in EssaysWhen Tiffany VanWinkoop looked through letters between Constantine VII and his friend, she was surprised to read erotic requests for and descriptions of lettuce. Might lettuce be a tenth century equivalent of the contemporary eggplant and peach emoji?
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The Weedy Possibilities of Mother Mesquite
in ExhibitsErin Charpentier and Travis Neel consider the place of weeds in our world in their living, collaborative art installation of honey mesquite trees, The Mesquite Mile.
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A Love Letter to Weeds
in EssaysWeeds are maligned as useless, or even harmful, plants. But Tabitha Faber has always had an affection for them, and thinks they can teach us something about how communities of all kinds can practice better relationships.
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BBC’s The Green Planet Puts Plants in the Spotlight
James Weldon reviews BBC’s docuseries The Green Planet, and considers whether new film technology can help humans better understand plants.
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A Black Herbalist’s Guide to Breathing and Grieving with Yellow Dock
in EssaysHerbalist Asia Dorsey reflects on a pandemic year when life and death cycles were especially present and describes Yellow Dock’s role as the grief worker of the plant world.
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The Quarantine Garden
in ReviewsGardening is on the rise as the world quarantines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anna Muenchrath considers the implications and opportunities of the quarantine garden in her review of The Poetics and Politics of Gardening in Hard Times.
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Composting’s Colonial Roots and Microbial Offshoots
in EssaysCurrent methods of composting came out of colonial plantation agriculture, but have become a key way of practicing polyculture and imagining multispecies communities.
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ClearCut – The Wages of Dominion
in ExhibitsIn ClearCut – The Wages of Dominion, photographer John Riggs presents a guided meditation about the cultural mindset behind clearcutting.