New work featured in ‘Botany of Desire’ at Swivel Gallery, Brooklyn, October 14, 2023
Mad Honey Vision, 2023. Watercolor, acrylic and and embroidery on paper on paper, 29.5 x 21 in.
“Botany of Desire” explores how certain plants have evolved to gratify human desires - specifically for sweetness, beauty, intoxication, control and healing - and, in turn, how plant species have used man to meet their own benefit. Given that plants are immobile, they have learned to be the ultimate chemist in order to further their reproduction. The exhibition draws its inspiration from a book of the same title by Michael Pollan, which questions the idea that people are the sole drivers of domestication. Weaving threads from personal histories, the artists share critical representations of flora and vegetation intertwined with vulnerable human experiences.
Featuring artists Caroline Absher, Lindsay Adams, Camilla Alberti, Hangama Amiri, Bhasha Chakrabarti, Chitra Ganesh, Shyama Golden, Alison Kudlow, Alicia McNamara, Isabella Mellado, Bianca Nemelc, Devin Osorio, Hilda Palafox, Luján Pérez Hernández, Kelly Shami, Ivana Štulić, Abhishek Tuiwala, Khari Turner, Miko Veldkamp and Letha Wilson. Curated by Sadaf Padder.