Duo exhibition ‘Vegetal Matters’, Arta Raituma and Nina Fraser. Estação Canelas, Rua da Estação Canelas, Aveiro, Portugal. 2024. Selected photos.
Exhibition dates: June 14 - July 19
After carrying out an artistic residency within the environment and biosphere of the region BioRia, an area of diverse natural and agricultural practices, the artists Arta Raituma and Nina Fraser present their workings around the concept of ‘plant thinking’, put across by Michael Marder in his research surrounding vegetal anti-metaphysics, and what we can learn from plants.
Looking at interdisciplinarity as a fertile space for cross contamination, the works produced in hybrid mediums take the form of two dimensional works on paper, as well as installation, found objects, and photography. Organic materials sourced from the site interact with experimental processes to explore the dissolution of boundaries between categorical thinking, leaving traces of vegetal matter exposed. An exchange process between a plant, the materiality of the medium and the place of its encounter all contribute to the intermingling/becoming of the two artistic outputs.
‘Our collaboration began through repeated encounters, initially sparked by theoretical research around ‘Plant-Thinking’. Serving as a fertile soil from which our shared exploration sprouted - an exchange of written correspondence cultivated our own thought-rhizomes. As the synergy flourished, we contemplated an ideal space to materialise our ideas. Already acquainted with the Canelas Estação project we took part in an artist residency in September 2023, shaping an active attunement to the surrounding ecosystem - particularly the marshlands and their inhabiting species.
We encountered the landscape through foraging expeditions and guided walks, with a keen focus on the narrative of ‘the weeds’ and ‘the invasive’, mimicking our own sense of estrangement within the area. The goal was not to feast on the fruit, rather embrace the stems, the roots, the overlooked particles. Autonomous creations began to take shape, utilising wood burning techniques, sketches and photographs. Parallelly we combined approaches, overlapping our work in a dance that mimics how one plant species can coexist or invade and oppress another. The works were left in Canelas to morph and dry out over the months before we returned for this exhibition. During this time we processed our findings in a format of a zine - edition of 30 hand finished zines. It has been a series of many looped perspectives - embracing a vegetal view, one that will continue its becoming of a multi-species net. It suggests interaction, playfulness, reconnection with nature and within ourselves. In the words of the German philosopher Andreas Weber in his book ‘Enlivenment: Toward a Poetics for the Anthropocene;
“The enlivement approach is not just an abstract philosophical reimagining of the world… it means getting things, people and oneself to live again – to be full of life. These enlivenment-based models are integrating the social and the natural. They are rediscovering sense-making through practical action.’’'
