Bombyx Papaver, 2019, silk, raw cotton, wool, white poppy seeds, ambrosia maple, peach blossom branches, 36 x 60 x 8 inches
Bombyx Papaver, 2019. Detail view of poppy seeds in cotton.
Fortunella, 2019, reclaimed lumber, neon plexiglass, kumquats, bamboo walking sticks, jasmine tea, jujube, window privacy film, tea tin lid, house paint, brass hardware, 34 x 100 x 26 inches
Fortunella, 2019. Detail view of kumquats (retired genus Fortunella) and jasmine tea.
Fortunella, 2019. Detail view: references scientific illustrations of Serpula lacrymans, a dry rot fungus once local to the Himalayas. The fungus travelled with British expansion and decayed wooden ships such as those used by Robert Fortune.
Ex Situ, 2019, reclaimed lumber, unfired porcelain, poppy seeds, tree resin, brass hardware, house paint, mold, 8 x 60 x 10 inches
Ex Situ, 2019, detail view of mold on poppy seeds
Wardian Cases
Sculptural renovations of the Wardian case, a 19th century container designed by London physician Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward to transport plants overseas. The British East India Company famously sent botanist Robert Fortune to smuggle 20,000 tea plants from China into plantations in India using Wardian cases. The early terrariums sought to hermetically seal their specimens yet often arrived at the dock with unexpected guests in tow. In the spirit of the traveling fungus Serpula Lacrymans, one of the species inadvertently transported, the sculptures invite fissures through these vessels of colonial conquest.
Wardian cases full of cycads from Rockhampton, Queensland, arrive at the Missouri Botanic Gardens after a long journey via London and New York, c.1920. Missouri Botanic Gardens.