This installation is houses a series of explorations surrounding human-plant relationships. Three videos play that document confrontations with the more unexpected properties of plant-consumption: bitterness, toxicity, and histamine content. Two CRT monitors sit at either end of a table with a clear top. The small cameras mounted beneath the table send the activity from the tabletop to the monitors. In this way, the table becomes the stage for viewers to interact with the leaves of English Yew plants gathered from the area surrounding the Koppelman Gallery in Medford, MA where this piece was exhibited. The viewers were invited to interact in any way that they chose with the leaves, which house hundreds of lethal doses of taxine compounds but pose little threat if not consumed. The table also houses small questionnaires which ask viewers to observe their surroundings and identify themselves from various investigative standpoints.

photo credit: Laura Beth Reese

(Sample questionnaire [one of four])

1. Have you seen this plant before?

2. Do you think you could pick it out of a lineup?

3. Are you more of a:

_ witch

_ scientist

_ animal

_ lost person

_ exhibitionist ocasual observer o bystander

_ survivor

_ cook

_ explorer

_ child age 0-12?

4. Would you rather be something else?

5. Would you call poison control just to tell them how your morning was going?

6. if you were a dog, what could you get away with?

7. Do you prefer hiding or being seen?

8. Do plants ever get in your way?

9. Do you like yourself, or nature more?

10. Would you notice if your heart started to beat slightly slower?

11. Do you worry

other people think that you’re following them?

12. What would you risk to avoid

routine?