Growing Histories: Ground Dispersions
Galería Marta Cervera, Madrid, Spain
June 19 – July 19, 2024
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An indoor garden in the shape of a map of Spain and Portugal, blooms in the gallery. Designed and assembled by architect Kadambari Baxi and artist Maureen Connor, this installation displays live plants historically used for fertility management, recent geolocated herb observations maps, reimagined plant-passports and data on current international abortion laws. Collectively, these materials highlight the natural and cultural histories of plant medicines and reproductive control.
 

Also on view in the gallery is Negro Purpura, a film by Sabela Iglesias and Adriana Villanueva. It focuses on ergot, a fungus that infects farmed and wild grasses, such as rye. Another natural source for reproductive care, ergot became, for a time, the center of the pharmaceutical industry in 20th century Spain. Before then, ergot had been known for centuries by herbalists for fertility control when used in small amounts, a hallucinogen at higher doses and a deadly poison with prolonged use.
 

Since plants do not grow according to national boundaries (although sending them through borders is highly controlled), the wall-maps in the gallery expand beyond Spain and Portugal. Crowdsourced observations of each herb across borders near and far is juxtaposed with legends listing uneven country-based laws and public healthcare demands. According to the World Health Organization global data, the legality of abortion across the world has little to no effect on abortion rates everywhere, and the organization underscores: legal or not, abortions can, will, and does take place.

**Plants, exhibition installation and plant maintenance provided by the Planteka Community; and Speak in Plants;
Project team: Amy Sinclair, Claudia Caremi, the Planteka and Speak in Plants crew, Ayelen Mataini, Ana Maia, and Sanitha Alam and their assistants Ashley Brown, Francisco Miai, and Manuela Iturburanto.
Special thanks to: Marta Cervera, Joanna Furman and Maya Taavon at Galeria Marta Cervera