An interesting online lecture in the series Plant Lives – Critical Plant Humanities organised by Wits University in Johannesburg featured a talk by Yota Batsaki titled “The Plant at the End of the World: Invasive Species in the Anthropocene”. It was based on the paper we could read in advance “The Plant at the End of the World: Precious Okoyomon’s Invasive Art” in Critical Inquiry vol 50. The article is a real treasure in terms of references to classics related to plants. It is interesting in its focus on the changes in the relationship to a specific plant, the kudzu vine both geographically, over time and in a contemporary art installation. The relationship to kudzu in the cotton belt in USA and the changes from possible solution to pest is fascinating to read. And the issue of invasive species overall, how to define and understand them, combat them or live with them is fascinating. The use of the exuberant proliferation of a living plant to create an immersive installation is a great topic, too, although not contextualised as thoroughly as the history of the vine. The subtitles give an idea of the width of the discussion, where descriptions of the artworks of the Nigerian-American artist Precious Okoyomon are framing and alternating with a historical account of the plant in the cotton belt. After a lengthy introduction comes “Invading the Gallery: Earthseed (2020)”, then “A Cultural History of Kudzu in the American South” and finally “Beyond the Apocalypse: To See the Earth before the End of the World (2022)”. To include at least one quotation, I add here the last words of the article: “By giving a plant invasive free reign in the gallery, institutionalizing its growth where it doesn’t belong, Okoyomon instantiates a new aesthetic that takes shape around uncontrolled abundance, troubles notions of home and belonging, and generates new landscapes that may or may not be hospitable to human presence — imagining new potentialities and coexistences.” (Batsaki 2024, 609)
 
From the discussion after the talk I remember the usual question: what happened to the plants after the exhibition (they were burned), and also a reference to the idea of invasive species as the new wild, the solution to damaged soils and the beginning of new ecosystems slowly evolving. The two time perspectives, the deep time of evolution and the historical time of human culture coexist, but can be difficult to relate to. Even though the idea that life will continue evolving over deep time can be a consolation, it cannot remove the grief, guilt and shame for the destruction of lifeworlds and the loss of species that we have brought about and continue with at a growing speed.
 
 
Yota Batsaki (2024) The Plant at the End of the World:
Precious Okoyomon’s Invasive Art. Critical Inquiry, volume 50, number 4, Summer 2024. Published by The University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.1086/730350 (p 585-609)