Ben Mosher / Plants of the year 5850: Speculative Flora of the Symbiocene
For the month of July, sculptural permutations of rare and endangered plants from our local area will infest the lawn at ARTSPLACE.
Each sculpture is an augmented representation of a native plant imagined from the far-off distant future. The design of each planetoid sculpture carries a mini evolutionary narrative. "Slender Panic Iris" represents an evolutionary union of native "Iris prismatica" and "Panicum dichotomiorum". Each of these plants is endangered in Nova Scotia due to habitat loss, in the intervening eras, I imagine them bonding together. "Pennywort" depicts "Hydrocotyle umbellata" after adapting to life on land. The endangered "Hydrocotyle umbellata" is known to live on lake edges in Kejimkujik National Park, as the lakes dried up over thousands of years they adopted sturdier stalks. Finally, "Blue Felt Lichen" represents our provincial lichen "Pectenia plumbea" which has overgrown its present form with its generous lower scalloped base and striking tall and slender copper fruiting bodies.
Annapolis Royal has a deep history of control over the natural world. Two patents from the early 20th century were concerned with poisoning insects and fungi with copper based pesticides (copper-sulphide). The evidence of this domineering relationship is evidenced further in the sublime historic gardens down the street. By looking closer at this kind of control and preservation we can see which plants benefit from our attention and care and which have been neglected. These questions are central to the work that I am posing. When the community encounters these playful sculptures, I hope my work will stir interest in discussions around the specific plants I have chosen to represent. As these are imagined plants that have survived to evolve beyond their present forms, we have an opportunity to think about the implications of evolution in our changing climate.
Ben is an artist based in Nova Scotia whose practice grows through intuitive experimentation and meditative preoccupations. A graduate of Ba. Studio Arts at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario in 2015, they returned home to Nova Scotia, beginning their art practice in Halifax. Ben imagines lighthearted drawing and sculptural works as a means for playful contemplation. Drawing from their flubs and curiosities, they embrace idiosyncratic knowledge while examining and undermining ideas of ‘stupidity’ and ‘weakness’. As a wanderer, Ben retains delicate and lightweight ways of making, celebrating growth and promoting openings by employing a do-it-yourself ethic using common flexible materials. In their work, they welcome quick cartoonish imagery mingling with elusive fuzzy notions. I am pulled towards imagery that is moderately humorous, playfully exaggerated and entirely flexible. Gravitating to subtle and light materials, I am cautious of my impact on them. Looking for ways to allow materials to stay unfixed, allowing them to bounce and sway in subtle performativity. My seemingly trivial subjects become tried up in social upending of the relationship between heroic and trivial sculpture — questioning binary relationships of strength.