PLASTIC SALT PLANTS

The idea of plastic plants sprouting from a field of salt emerges directly from the movement in geographical and literary theory that deals with the Anthropocene. In the geologic age of humans, as it were, this dystopic notion of a nature so far removed from its idyllic past is quickly becoming reality. In a world where genomes are engineered, patented, then sold as legal property, what is too far of a conceptual leap? What monsters, as Bruno Latour put it, are yet to be witnessed from the hybrid of organic life and human meddling? Salty soils (through desertification worldwide) ... check. Plastic organic bodies (through ocean pollution and fish consumption) ... check. You see, plastic plants growing in salt isn’t that far of a leap.

I had a specific vision of what I wanted these plastic plants to look like: hard flash and a total deep, black background. I wanted the black to come from spaciousness--as opposed to a black felt--so I emptied out a large filming studio at the Regis art center and turned off all the lights. Working with Xavier Tavera, this gave me the chance to dial in (quite literally) my Vivitar auto thyristor 550FD flash so that the plants were illuminated, but the back of the room remained black.

At the same time, I became fascinated with the salty material used on roads throughout the winter in northern climates. It’s an intentional salting of the earth, something that history knows not as a transportation safety measure, but as a military tactic to prevent agriculture on land that has recently been conquered. To salt the earth is to ensure dominance for at least another generation. Then there’s the noun phrase “salt of the earth,” which, strictly, means an honest person, but connotes moral superiority, a micro-agression of exclusion, a silent eyebrow raise against those who are clearly not the salt of the earth.