And the branches could grow beyond

During the lockdown period, several media reports recounted how “wild” plants were sprouting through the pavement. The combination of warm weather and lack of spraying with weedkiller had seen plants even shoot up the side of buildings. With some public parks and gardens closed, people learned to enjoy plants where they could find them as an antidote to lives lived in front of the computer screen. Some reported that what had been a boring routine walk before the pandemic became detours searching for untamed vegetation emerging more and more each time from the concrete. As “almost normal” patterns of our lives have resumed recently, these vegetal distractions are again receding into the background. [5]

The branches extending across the gallery walls, which are intertwined with technical wires, comment on the divide between nature and technology brought into sharp focus during the crisis. They can be interpreted in a more metaphorical sense, as the growing internet cables have replaced the in-person communication and exchanges between people. In this very exhibition, half of the collaboration had to develop virtually due to pandemic restrictions on freedom of movement. The project’s virtual and technological natures coexist and are in tension with the material’s ecological characteristics, such as clay, plaster, resin, and branches. 

[5] Slawson, Nicola. More than Weeds. The Rebel Botanists on a Mission to Celebrate Urban Plants. Positive News Magazine, 8. september 2020.