Plant is a Poem
Plant is a Poem (Sountrack) 2023Soundtrack, 15 min
Plant is a Poem (She writes the spell into the soil), 2023
Text score on silk, oak gall ink, 2 x 115 x 350 cm
Plant is a Poem, is a series of works comprising of a soundtrack and a text score printed on silk with oak gall ink once commonly used in medieval manuscripts and documents. The work draws inspiration from various vegetal incantations aiming to explore how languages we speak reflect and are (re)shaped by our relationships with plants. The sound piece enmeshes human voice and poetic narration within an atmospheric soundscape, it centres onomatopoeia as a vocal tool to explore the limits between noise and meaning-formation.
Incantations, spells and utterances are often thought of as magical tools of enchantment. Commonly believed to unlock plants’ inert properties and powers, in folk medicine verbal cues often accompany practical application of potions. Incantations can be performed as empathic and affective devices, to call out to the other-than-human world. As an act of echoing the vegetal with desire to unravel shared poetic and visceral meanings.
Plant is a Poem, When Site Lost the Plot, Amsterdam
Photos by Franz Mueller Schmidt
Photos by Franz Mueller Schmidt