The Wardian: Confiscated Dendrobiums and Displaced Identities

Abstract

The Wardian: Confiscated Dendrobiums and Displaced Identities is an art-based research project that addresses issues around displacement and migration. By retracing the personal journey of this illegally traded, ecologically endangered, confiscated - then rescued - Dendrobium orchid, currently held in quarantine at the Botanic Garden of Smith College, this project investigates the mechanisms by which institutions and legal systems transfer and detain plants. The installation consists of five hand-welded metal structures, the primary artifacts for my research. Each structure stands as an individual signifier of the legislative, the sociopolitical, the biotic, and finally the ethnomedicinal knowledge systems. Together, the artifacts enter in a dialogue which invites the viewer to question, beyond the journey of the Dendrobium orchid, our relationship with one another as living beings.