Kari Englehardt

Statement: HORTUS SICCUS OPINATA

We live in an era of unprecedented global movement. There are profound environmental changes and ecosystems are being upended by human involvement in the natural world. In their quest for survival, species are shifting where, when, and how they thrive within an ever-changing geographic spatiality. I am compelled to recognize and appreciate this basic premise: all species adapt in order to survive. How are plants and people similar in this process? In a time of widespread and politically contentious human movement, how can we see ourselves in the evolving patterns of global migration?

This work takes into consideration the migration of people as told through the movement and hybridization of native plants. In this hypothetical herbarium, plants native to disparate regions of the world have adapted into a single neo-native species. It allows for a visual metaphor of inclusion and acceptance through an anthro botanical lens.

By looking at data from the current ACS (American Community Survey through the Census Bureau), as well as considering individual origin stories from members the local Marfa, TX community, I hope we see ourselves in these neo-native plant specimens and realize that were are all immigrants through time and place.