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Exhibition opens at Alice Austen House, New York, March 8, 2024

March 2024

Ann Shelton: worm, root, wort… & bane

→ Opening March 10th - May 26th

Systems of belief concerning the medicinal, magical and spiritual uses of plant materials were well established in the lives of European forest, nomadic and ancient peoples. However, these beliefs were forcibly supplanted as pagan practices were displaced across Europe and other continents in the wake of Christianity and the rise of capitalism.

Worm, root, wort…& bane engages with botanical knowledge as a sphere in which politics have been played out then and now, continuing to effect Western attitudes to women, to nature and to privilege. Put in the context of ecopolitics and intersectional feminisms, the current environmental emergency and the many impacts of this high capitalist moment, these works signal a rupture that has taken place. This has distanced us economically and spiritually from our environment and ultimately led to our current crisis.

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All the hours of the day (calendula, marigold, pot marigold, marsh marigold, Marygold, Mary and gold, Mary-budde, fleur-de-Marie, oculus Christi, fiore d’ogni mese, golde, golds, ruddes, solis sponsa, solsequia, poor man’s saffron).