Gardens in the Gallery: Displaying and Experiencing Contemporary Plant-art

Abstract

This article explores different institutional approaches to exhibiting and maintaining living, plant-based sculptures, and installation art. By studying the creation and management of artworks by Gilberto Esparza, Michael Wang, Precious Okoyomon, and Daniel Lie, this article considers how cultural institutions can incorporate ethics of more-than-human care in their conservation practices. As each of these artworks grows, decays, and dies through differing states of institutional intervention (or lack thereof), their provocative experiments through the themes and aesthetics of queer ecology, vegetal technoscience, and botanical decolonization invite museum staff and visitors alike into biodynamic, multisensory engagements with multispecies collaboration that turn the white cube into soil and green.

Keywords

• environmental art
• botanical sculpture
• installation art
• museum studies
• exhibition maintenance
• multispecies artmaking
• living sculpture
• bio art
• curated decay
• plant temporality