Whitewashed Botany
2021
Metal storage cases, lights, prints, photographs, laser-cut quotes, preserved sugarcane, cocoa pods, cocoa seeds, coffee beans, Coffea arabica specimen, cinchona bark, coco-de-mer, specimen jars, and herbarium tape
14'x 3' x 6.5'
Installation at the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden.
Whitewashed Botany is an intro into botany’s buried past. Referencing institutional display and storage, metal cases serve as a repository, housing quotes, prints, and objects stripped of their original context. Unlike most botanical displays, plants that have long been collected, cataloged, and capitalized on are shown beside images of peoples whose labor and contributions are rarely acknowledged within scientific circles. Elements are linked using specimen tape, signifying ownership and the inextricable connection between natural history, big business, and colonialism.
