Radio Thamesmead.
Jan 2025- Ongoing
The Museum of Plant Art is currently developing a series of three radio episodes—experimental musical compositions that explore the vibratory interactions between plants and their pollinators, grounded in the principles of harmonious resonance. These works will be broadcast via TACO! Gallery’s community radio station, Radio Thamesmead.
Drawing an evocative parallel between the resonant frequencies shared by plants and pollinators and the phenomenon of sympathetic resonance in human music, the episodes seek to illuminate a largely overlooked dimension of vegetal life. While the mechanics of buzz pollination and the vibrational language of bees are relatively well-documented, the manner in which flowers resonate—akin to the sympathetic strings of a sitar—remains underexplored. Here, plants and pollinators emerge as co-creators in a shared vibrational field, their interactions recalling the aleatoric interplay of jazz musicians: distinct yet interwoven, improvisational yet ultimately harmonic.
The three musical pieces embrace a highly experimental approach, engaging with sympathetic resonance as both a sonic phenomenon and an artistic methodology. In doing so, they invite contemplation on the intricate relationships between plants and pollinators, and the latent aesthetic dimensions embedded within their interactions. This enquiry aligns with the Museum of Plant Art’s broader investigative agenda, which challenges entrenched anthropocentric perspectives on artistic agency by foregrounding the aesthetic intentionality of plants. Rather than positioning plants as passive subjects of human representation—a gesture that risks slipping into anthropomorphism—the museum instead interrogates the dynamic expressions that emerge from their encounters with pollinators.
At once a philosophical meditation and a scientific inquiry, this project unsettles the hierarchical frameworks that have long structured Western thought on interspecies relations, drawing attention to the profound complexity of plant life and the vast lacunae in our understanding of it. Through its exhibitions, publications, and public programmes, the Museum of Plant Art fosters a rethinking of vegetal sentience and non-Western epistemologies, culminating in a deceptively simple yet radical provocation: why should this not be considered art?
University of Cambridge & Sparxell.
May 2023 - Ongoing
Since May 2023, the Museum of Plant Art has been engaged in an ongoing collaboration with the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and its spin-off company, Sparxell, to explore the complexities of plant iridescence and to interrogate its potential as an artistic expression. This partnership seeks to unravel the aesthetic and scientific dimensions of iridescence within the vegetal realm, challenging conventional delineations between the natural and the artistic.
The collaboration has given rise to a series of artworks exhibited in major museum and gallery contexts, including La Maison Européenne de la Photographie and Saatchi Gallery, with an upcoming presentation at Arsenal Photo Wien. Through these exhibitions, the Museum of Plant Art continues its critical inquiry into the ways in which plant life generates visual phenomena that transcend mere biological function, opening a space for reimagining the artistic agency of the non-human world.
LIPME - Laboratoire des Interactions Plantes - Microbes - Environnement. INRAE /CNRS.
Apr 2023 - Nov 2023
As part of the 1+2 residency programme, the Museum of Plant Art undertook its first artist residency at the Laboratoire des Interactions Plantes-Microbes-Environnement (INRAE/CNRS). This residency initially focused on the visual dimensions of plant-pollinator interactions, with particular attention to iridescence and other perceptual phenomena that arise when pollinators encounter flowers. Expanding beyond the botanical realm, the residency also incorporated visits to animal laboratories within the CNRS, delving into the intricacies of pollinator perception and cognition.
The outcomes of these encounters were documented in a dedicated residency publication, released by Filigrane Editions, weaving together scientific research and artistic inquiry. The residency culminated in an immersive installation at the Chapelle des Cordeliers, a sensory environment that extended beyond the visual to include a musical performance and an exploration of the olfactory elements intrinsic to plant-pollinator interactions. In doing so, the Museum of Plant Art continued its commitment to challenging anthropocentric notions of artistic agency, fostering a deeper engagement with the aesthetic and sensory worlds of non-human beings.