PLANT PEOPLE | A GROUP EXHIBITION

FEBRUARY 28TH, 2015 - MAY 9TH, 2015

If I remember the sunflower forest it is because from its hidden reaches humanity arose. The green world is our sacred center. In moments of sanity we must still seek refuge there.

- Loren Eiseley, The Invisible Pyramid.

The Galveston Artist Residency is very excited to announce our spring show, Plant People, a group exhibition to honor all things known, and unknown, observed, and only guessed at, about the plant world. With works and plants by:

Natasha Bowdoin

Dean Daderko

Andrea Dezsö

Tory Fair

Francesca Fuchs

Allison Hunter

Marie Leterme

Gabriel Martinez

Brian Porray

Diana Puntar

Adam Putnam

Lisa Sanditz

Ann Wood

We initially decided we wanted to do a show about plants at GAR because gardening and caring for our plants is such a big part of our daily activity here, and one of the most genuine ways that we connect with our community and other artists. People who are passionate about plants are our kind of people.

As a basis for how we wanted to think about this show we looked at The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. Written in the early 1970's, this book is the seminal text on the "physical, emotional, and spiritual relations between plants and man". Of course, many of the experiments written about in The Secret Life of Plants have since been debunked, or else held in high skepticism. However, the book still holds a sort of mystical power for those of us that believe that plant life is far more than just props in mankind's drama.

For our show at GAR, we'd like to honor these often overlooked qualities of plants - their ability to communicate, emote, sense, think, and live in a way that is startlingly similar to our own existence.

Artists and collaborators were asked to contribute a work that interacts, responds to, or in some way honors a plant of their choosing. The works are displayed alongside the plants that inspired them, creating an environment where plant and art can communicate, and commune, as one and the same.

In addition to the visual works in the show we've also worked to create a sort of 'plant summer camp' atmosphere - scheduling events that allow for the plants to be interacted with in various ways. Jonathan Booker of Da Camera's Young Artists Program is composing a musical installation specifically for plants which will debut in a few weeks time, and current GAR Artist in Residence, Grace Ndiritu will be doing a shamanic performance titled The Secret Life of Plants on April 4th. Another aspect of the show will engage the community through a plant sale/plant trade that we will stage in the gallery. Stay tuned for more information on these events, and others, which will be held this spring.

Plant People will open to the public on Saturday, February 28th with a reception from 6-9pm.