During the residency of ZAO EXPO, 50 species of plants were collected on the surroundings of the Zao volcano (Miyagi, Japan). Their substances were extracted using the artist’s technique, which is based on pre-colonial methodologies from South America, used to prepare medicines from plants. Inside of open glass tubes, in the middle of the forest, the medicinal substances extracted evaporate and return to the atmosphere. Installed in the middle of the forest, the work invites the public to walk among the trees and pay attention to the interspecies relationships that take place around them, as part of the experience of the artwork.
Coexisting systems that expresses the interdependent cycles of water, minerals and plants on a volcanic region
at Zao. Medicinal substances from selected plants are mixed together and circulates in a system going back into the ground. Rocks collected from the Matsu and Nigori rivers, which originate in the Zao volcano, have been transferred to an area where mineral-
rich onsen hot spring water circulates. The gray rocks (igneous and metamorphic) become orange with the action of iron minerals, as well as collected leaves become hard greenish rocks. The water from the onsen also circulates in the system and returns to the soil, mixing with the substance of the plants.
at Zao. Medicinal substances from selected plants are mixed together and circulates in a system going back into the ground. Rocks collected from the Matsu and Nigori rivers, which originate in the Zao volcano, have been transferred to an area where mineral-
rich onsen hot spring water circulates. The gray rocks (igneous and metamorphic) become orange with the action of iron minerals, as well as collected leaves become hard greenish rocks. The water from the onsen also circulates in the system and returns to the soil, mixing with the substance of the plants.
The artwork was later exhibited during Mettafestival, organized by Goethe Institute and curated by Aliwen. On that occasion the pieces was placed on the wall and the substances of the 69 plants evaporated and mixed in the air, composing an invisible vegetal healing atmosphere. The installation also featured a collaboration with the artist Shiori Watanabe.
A special blend of herbs considered poisonous to humans but healing to other organisms was prepared and circulated in a peristaltic pump system, nourishing a weed garden cultivated during the exhibition.
