A Plant is a Community

WHY LISTEN TO PLANTS?
A plant knows and makes worlds. It communicates.

When we regard a plant, we usu­ally only see what’s above the sur­face: stems, trunks, branches, leaves, buds and flow­ers. But there’s so much more below ground – intri­cate nets of roots, radi­cles and fungal bodies through which water, nutri­ents, knowl­edge and com­mu­nity flows. Plants are always con­nected, always talk­ing and lis­ten­ing to each other, even in the most con­structed of land­scapes. A plant knows and makes worlds; it is always in com­mu­ni­ca­tion with others. Through root-lis­ten­ing, through prac­tices of shar­ing words, time — and seeds — can we cul­ti­vate a veg­etable-based con­scious­ness?

FEATURING

Con­ver­sa­tions with Abo­rig­i­nal Elders about reflec­tion on place and plants in Mt Coot-tha.

LIBBY HARWARD, who is a Ngugi woman from the Quan­damooka, will share find­ings, analy­sis and thoughts from her research res­i­dency at the Botan­i­cal Gar­dens site. Libby will lead an artist walk to visit her installed works through­out the Gar­dens. Through her prac­tice of Gangga (a Yugambeh/​Bundjalung word that best trans­lates as ​“to call out and to hear simul­ta­ne­ously”), and Gang­galanji which extends this action to think­ing, she will reflect on the colo­nial prac­tices of plant­ing for a con­trolled aes­thetic, and how it inter­acts with the inter-rela­tion­ship of the flora and fauna that occupy coun­try. It is Libby’s inten­tion to utilise sound and lan­guage to under­stand some things about the inter­ac­tions and what they might be com­mu­ni­cat­ing in an as-yet unheard sov­er­eign dia­logue about coloni­sa­tion, dis­play, danger, and resis­tance.

The world’s lead­ing plant bioa­coustic sci­en­tist, MONICA GAGLIANO (Perth) will give a read­ing and thoughts from her latest book, the phyto-biog­ra­phy Thus Spoke the Plant (North Atlantic Books; released Novem­ber 13, 2018).

LEAH BARCLAY’s response to Monica’s book is a vir­tual real­ity instal­la­tion using tra­duc­ers play­ing through the body to trans­port the lis­tener deep into the ground fol­low­ing the roots of a plant in search of water.

MICHELLE XEN with SHANE RUDKEN’s med­i­ta­tion on plant-being stems from inves­ti­gat­ing ampli­fied root sys­tems and native insect sounds, with­out any sci­en­tific basis. Her sen­su­ous sonic cam­ou­flage will sym­pa­thet­i­cally sound eco-sexual plant sys­tems via sub­mer­sion in sub­ter­ranean sub­terfuge.

RENATA BUZIAK’s phyto-graphic abstrac­tions will offer alchem­i­cal read­ings making the sign lan­guage of plants leg­i­ble to human per­cep­tion.

Through­out the day, MUTUAL MAKING (CAITLIN FRANZMANN and DHANA MERRITT) will gen­er­ate a space for con­ver­sa­tion and the cre­ation and shar­ing of plant wisdom and expe­ri­ences, includ­ing tea drink­ing, div­ina­tion read­ings and talk­ing.

PRIMITIVE MOTION (LEIGHTON CRAIG AND SANDRA SELIG) will invite audi­ences into their sun-drenched secret garden of sound.

For more information please visit the – Website

A Plant is a Community is a collaboration between Liquid Architecture and people + artist + place (Jenna Green and Marisa Georgiou) and forms part of Liquid Architecture’s major investigation, Why Listen to Plants.

This project has been supported by Brisbane City Council’s Creative Sparks program and delivered as part of Co-MMotion: Brisbane City Council’s Temporary Art Program 2018.

Image: Renata Buziak