Antennae #51 Vegetal Entanglements #1

Plants have been an enigmatic and inexhaustible source of representational reinvention throughout the history of art. But they have more often been relegated to the background of our imaginative prowess. They have been allowed to play sidekick roles but very rarely, if ever, plants have been given the opportunity to take center stage.

The recent emergence of the vegetal world in contemporary art is the symptom of a new cultural shift. No longer just interested in their aesthetic beauty, artists now look at plant-agency and intelligence, or focus on new considerations of plants as key players in historical, biological, and ecological contexts. As humanity begins to grapple with the urgency imposed by climate change, reconsidering human/plant relationships can reveal the importance of ecological interconnectedness and lead to a more nuanced consideration of the variety of living organisms and ecosystems with which we share the planet.

About the Author
Aloi, Giovanni: - Dr. Giovanni Aloi is an author, educator, and curator specializing in the representation of nature and the environment in art. Aloi is the Editor in Chief of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture. He is the author of many books on art and nature including Art & Animals (2011), Speculative Taxidermy (2018), Why Look at Plants? The Botanical Emergence in Contemporary Art, Botanical Speculations (2018), Animal: Exploring the Zoological World (2018) and Lucian Freud Herbarium (2019). He is a regular public speaker at the Art Institute of Chicago, a radio contributor, and has curated exhibitions in the USA and abroad. He lectures on modern and contemporary art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Sotheby's Institute of Art in New York.