"Grow with me," says Jambu, 2023 Laser Engraved Hortigrow 99 Pilkington Sheet Glass, Jambu, ceramic ollas, soil, video projection 79x61x31cm each
"Grow with me," says Jambu
2023
Laser Engraved Hortigrow 99 Pilkington Sheet Glass,
Jambu,
ceramic ollas,
soil,
video projection 79x61x31cm each
Acmella oleracea
I whisper your name to myself. Uncertain of your pronunciation, I am gentle and slow with your sounds. Or your could-be sounds.
“Toothache Plant,” I say louder.
“Jambu,” loud enough for the breeze to hear me.
How do I care for you little one?
We are still unfamiliar to each other. I’ve never harvested your seeds, seen your growth, or mourned your passing. There is so much unknown. I look to digital archives, strangers’ advice, diagrams, and data. They say “the species [you] can be grown as a perennial if protected under glass during the winter”
I will protect you with glass.
May I protect you with glass? I can help you grow, give you light and water the soil you need. Will you grow with me? And perhaps, will you remedy me? Be my medicine? Remedy the part of me that is aching, my mouth that knows only the echoes of sounds from the language where you’re from. Where my family is from. Will you soothe the aching part of me that feels heavy and longing? I will pour love and care and learn and think of you often.
Will you grow with me?
This inscription located on the side of the work, describes the beginning of a relationship with a medicinal plant native to Brazil, named Jambu. This plant is known for its numbing qualities when ingested orally and can serve as a remedy providing both antiseptic and anesthetic effects. I considered, perhaps through a nontraditional interaction with the plant, by becoming friends, that it might become a remedy for the pain one experiences when they are unable to speak their cultural language. Could learning about Jambu soothe my linguistic aches? This question drove my research, imagery, and object making. I translated all of this information, both the data I collected from science journals as well as my own personal data I formed while growing and getting to know the plant, into this living installation.
This work then becomes both a living home for the plant, as well as viewing portal for the video, and experience for the viewer to also become friends with jambu. Through this work, I hope to depict the complex and varied ways to grow a relationship with the world around us. That all one must do is to introduce yourself and be curious.