As an artist, I’m interested in marginalized communities. First I looked at marginalized groups in the human environment, now I find them among other species
Anastasia Potemkina, artist
Marchantia Polymorpha: Up Close and Personal is Anastasia Potemkina's first show inside the Anna Nova Gallery space. The artist’s new project continues the exploration that she started in the Urban Fauna Laboratory. Once again she turns to the plant kingdom and demonstrates the potential of a brave new non-anthropocentric world. In this project, the main characters are plants that have healing properties and that functioned as communicators between different worlds in certain traditional cultures. The artist previously used the project Bad Seed Renaissance (performance, 2016) to talk about a new civilization where people exist in a state of mutually beneficial communication with wild flora. Her new exhibition likewise focuses on communication between species. The key to its understanding lies in visual meditation on the images of plants as modern icons.
The name of the project refers to the moss Marchantia Polymorpha, the central image in a huge semi-abstract photo mural. The ornamentation of the image both endows the plant with psychedelic characteristics and reflects the complexity of its structure, making it clear that this creature might be different, but equal to a human being and capable of communicating with us. The exhibition also features engraved glasses and mirrors, that facilitate deep scrutiny of images of the agents of the plant kingdom, opening the way for possible synesthesia and understanding of their structure and mutual benefits during communication with them.
The works come together in a single total installation, telling a story about a possible utopia and also showing us how to achieve it, or at least how to approach it.
