2007
Life Cycle of a Common Weed
A plant-human exchange of sustenance with blood and dandelions.
Life Cycle of a Common Weed, performance documentation. Photography by Alia Farid, 2007.
A plant-human exchange of sustenance with blood and dandelions.
Spectators were invited to participate in a dynamic, reciprocal performance of interspecies care by contributing their own blood to nourish the dandelions growing as the installation’s centerpiece. This transaction was meant to reflect on contagion, at once a threat but also, as Berrigan describes it, an opportunity for “intimacy, alliances, and reciprocity.” …Berrigan suggests that contagion across species boundaries can also be generative.
— “The Art of Interspecies Care,” Rachel Adams
Dandelions populate sidewalks, industrial wastelands, fields, alleys and even the manicured lawn. Their long taproots are brittle like spring carrots and run deep into the earth, making it difficult to uproot. Each part of the dandelion is edible and extremely nutritious. Dandelion is a safe and popular medicinal plant that promotes the flow of bile and reduces inflammation in the liver and gallbladder. Dandelions are higher in beta carotene than carrots, have more iron and calcium than spinach, contain many B vitamins, C, E, P, D, biotin, inositol, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc and inulin.
Every day I take dandelion root for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C, a mostly incurable virus transmitted by blood. In a gesture of reciprocity, I cultivate the nutritious dandelions and fertilize them with my own blood. My blood adds nitrogen to the soil, important to the growth of dark leafy greens. In consuming the dandelions, it is not possible to contract hepatitis C. The dandelions can benefit from the nutritional value of my blood but cannot be infected with the hepatitis C virus. I can give to the dandelions what would be a danger to any human, in a reciprocal plant-human exchange of sustenance.
Supported by
MIT Council for the Arts
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Bioart Residency
Multispecies Salon