Eden National Park: Do Not Touch
By Anna Svensson
This expresses concern about the limitations of conservation efforts that remove or create distance to humans, reinforcing a nature/culture divide. Also, handmade works are valued more highly if they are objects of display rather than use - they are not to be touched. (Somehow this quilt doesn't work according to that logic, even if it is made for display. It is a gift, and the labour and materials were not paid for.)
It is also a nod to my PhD on history of botanical collections and utopias, including the Early Modern grappling with how to recreate Eden in the face a natural and social world in decay.
I included this panel in a presentation discussing plants and conservation at the European Society for the History of Science Conference on 6 September, 2024.