In the hands of our eclectic physicians (2022) mixed media

The works in the installation were inspired by the fireweed plant, its migration, foraging, and consumption via the street market vendors. Works on display look at, come from and participate in alternative economies and exchange structures that are seen as an antidote to global capitalist structures. Amidst sculptural installations, the sound of fireweed was telling its story from the seed to the human’s body reverberates. The story was narrated by Dovilė Šimonytė, soundtracked and recorded by Sholto Dobbie.

Fireweed soundtrack

Foreword by Vaida Stepanovaitė

Fireweed has woven, entangled, and taken root in this exhibition – a weed blossoming in midsummer, also nicknamed as invasive or even colonial. Not exactly welcomed by the humans in his local ecosystem, the plant has its way of travelling – shedding its seeds where others don’t dare to go. Where the soil – or a roof, or a concrete pavement – has been marked by progress: by construction waste, railway tracks, oil spills, and other objects or weapons. Taking long budded root, fireweed sucks up poison as if a healer bandaging Earth‘s wounds.

Isn‘t it weird for a plant to be humanly invasive, alien, as if stumbled into the wrong private yard? The seed flies with the wind, without following directions set by global logistical capitalism. In the face of ecological tensions – no, catastrophe – the exhibition follows the fireweed across calcified grids of consumption, looking for alternative epistemologies and healing movements. Movement from urban gardens and suburban meadows to the makeshift stalls of local markets and neighbourhood pavements – where communal insider agreements and unwritten rules are abundant; and the (non)human migration is a survival condition rather than a threat.

Exhibition curator – Vaida Stepanovaitė

Exhibited at Swallow Gallery, SODAS1234, Vilnius (2022)