house plants are never just house plants – the process –

House plants are never just house plants

by

Areli Moran

First research period

Feb, March, April, 2023

19 – 22 June, 2023
Nuestras Plantas – Laboratory
Monterrey, Mexico.

22 June
The house plant project – Performance, installation, lecture.
Monterrey, Mexico.

The first research period, Feb – April 2023, was supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media within the program NEUSTART KULTUR.

Coming up:

19 – 22 June, 2023
Nuestras Plantas – Laboratory
Monterrey, Mexico.

22 June, 2023
The house plant project – Performance, installation, lecture.
Monterrey, Mexico.

RESEARCH

Inspired, in one hand, by the publication the Age of Plants by Anne Helen Petersen. There she talks about the history of houseplants and its interaction with the present society. On the other hand by the transportation of Cochineal to Europe and nopal (Prickly Pear Cactus), the cactuse that host Cochineal.
My artistic work touch upon subjects that come from personal experiences such as my identity as LGBTQ+, my fear of hair or my surgeries on my ovaries and uterus.
Initially I wrote the application for this research grant because I wanted to get close in to a “new” subject to me, about something that was interested to me but not necesarly that had, jet, any specific impact or event on my life.
To my surprise, looking back in to my passions, activities and others, plants as been a part of my journey from long time ago and this research have helped me to see that.

COCHINILLA

I learned about the transportation of cochinilla and nopal in a travel to Tenerife, Spain. A mediterranean that reminds me the coast of Oaxaca in Mexico. 
Tehre is not Not question how easier would be to transport a plant from Mexico to that Spanish land . 
At the moment I didn’t put so much emphasis on researching further but it keep coming to me. So when I put subjects for this research this was one of the firs things that came to my mind. 

One more thing that has been stolen from our Mexican lands and our resources. 

Just as clarification. Cochinilla translates to Cochineal, but I rather calling it Cochinilla.

There is an actually a lot of information about the history and uses of Cochinilla and I will share whit you what i found more accurate and interesting to me. As well you will be able to redirect to the full text of each following section.

Cochineal, a tiny, cactus-dwelling insect that produces a vibrant red pigment, was harvested for thousands of years by Indigenous peoples to produce a dye for their own textiles

WALKING DOCUMENTATION

WALKING DOCUMENTATION

I started to be more attentive of my sorraundings, for instance my daily walk with my dog along the river (spree) from Röntgenbrucke to Schlössbrucke, became source of information. On a day after snowing came to my memory that every change of the season the greenery of this path change a lot, and so I started to do a photo documentation to capture the change from winter to spring.