Mörk Materia / Dark Matter(s)

TM

The practice-based research carried out throughout several projects and assembled in this exposition is structured around a rhizomatic nexus of still ongoing entries into plant-thinking and co-becoming with plants, partly based on photographic, photosynthetic and biosynthetic processes under the project framework Cogito ergo Pisum, partly based on archival findings, found footage, phenomena and related discourse. "Cogito, ergo sum" is a philosophical statement in Latin by René Descartes, usually translated into English as "I think, therefore I am". The phrase originally appeared in French as je pense, donc je suis in his Discourse on the Method, to reach a wider audience. Connecting and collapsing the notion of thinking with plants – or in this case gray peas of the species Pisum sativum var. arvense, transposed into "Cogito ergo Pisum" – is at the heart of this research. Within the project I am researching, developing and cross-breeding a flora of transdisciplinary experiments, new material studies and processes, that revolve around ways of rethinking, creating for and becoming with other life forms. Photographic, biosynthetic and agricultural methodologies are being used in Cogito ergo Pisum to both analyze and synthesize new ecologies. On the basis of horizontal (gene) transfer, hybridity and hospitality, a number of agents, patients and symbionts have been subject to material-semiotic and transgenic inquiries: Timo the artist and Timo the grey pea — bioart experiments involving horizontal transfer of my DNA to a grey pea cultivar (Pisum sativum var.arvense). Pisum Sativum used by Gregor Mendel in 1856 when unfolding many of the rules of heredity, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance, constitute a key plant in "Cogito ergo Pisum". Epidermodysplasia verruciformis, also known as Tree Man Syndrome, an extremely rare autosomal recessive genetic hereditary skin disorder, and Foliate heads, also known as Green men, constitute a highly symbolic reading of a hybrid plant-human being. Several works and results of the processes active in Cogito ergo Pisum have been installed in a number of exhibitions, many of which are ongoing or infinite by nature; presented in open archival or horizontal hybrid structures with documents, negative cyanotype photograms, wall drawings and lab notes on paper, mail correspondence, facsimile of illustrated manuscripts, and cultivations of growing grey pea seeds. Some of them, including literature, phenomena, found footage and historical events have later made it into the polyphonic performance reading "Mörk Materia / Dark Matter(s)", which has been adapted and reconfigured to the contexts it has been performed in. Using photographic and moving images, documents, objects, drawings and plant cultivations I am approaching, renegotiating and speculating about our common nature-culture, to both highlight and transform an increasingly dark matter: body, earth, space.

Green Man - A Symbol of a Symbiosis?

Foliate Heads or Green Men belong to a rich flora of decorative motifs found in ancient and medieval culture throughout Europe. The term Green Men is ambivalent by nature and evokes other types of beings.

A Green Man can be described as a hybrid of human and plant, and was one of many fantasy figures in the medieval pictorial world. This green symbolism appeals to us today. The Middle Ages, often referred to as the very Dark Ages, unfold between antiquity and the Renaissance and later Enlightenment. Our time is sometimes allegorised to a new Medieval, haunted by new plagues and migrations as a result of conflicts and climate change. We are approaching a new ideological and ecological darkness.

Green men can appear in different guises. Face and foliage, or other vegetation are always in connection. Leaves can shape the face itself, or leafy shoots grow out of mouth, nose and ears. In its two extremes either vegetation or human traits dominate. Discord rules concerning the significance and symbolism of the Green Man.

Medieval reliefs and sculptures of Green Men are not easily deciphered. They contain an abundance of symbolism, which places them at the utmost limit of comprehension – literally embodying the incomprehensible. All Green Men give rise to the same question: Who is this figure crowned by branches and leaves on facades, doors and windows? Is there a connection to Bacchus, the god of wine? Is it good or evil? Is it just insignificant decor? Is he rather she, or they? There are no unambiguous answers, the motive confounds the viewer.

Plant-humxn in the shape of Green Men loom as liminal beings without fixed identity, purpose or meaning, betwixt man and woman, evil and good. The symbiosis of symbols points inwards and outwards of itself.

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Green Man - A Symbol of a Symbiosis?