by Giovanni Aloi (Author)
The recent emergence of the vegetal world in contemporary art is the symptom of a new cultural shift. No longer just interested in their aesthetic beauty, artists now look at plant-agency and intelligence or focus on new considerations of plants as key players in historical, biological, and ecological contexts. As humanity begins to grapple with the urgency imposed by climate change, reconsidering human/plant relationships can reveal the importance of ecological interconnectedness and lead to a more nuanced consideration of the variety of living organisms and ecosystems with which we share the planet.
The contributions gathered in the third installment of Vegetal Entanglements-a tryptic entirely dedicated to plants in art and culture-focus on the inextricable, actual, and metaphorical links that bind plants, ecosystems, and humans. In this issue, the interconnectedness that characterizes plant life is explored through a variety of media and approaches designed to foreground vegetal alterity. What role does anthropomorphism play in human-plant relations? How can we approach plant alterity in ways that bypass objectification? How can plants help us build fairer and more sustainable futures? These and many more questions are addressed in this issue.