Zoey Hayes

In my series, I am asking multiple questions centered around perception: How do the perceptions of human nature and plants bleed together? How do societal perceptions of human nature affect who we call human? When researching the symbolism of plants, I noticed the similarities between how humans perceive plants and human nature. We tend to categorize human nature and plants the same way, often good or bad; however, our perceptions often contradict each other when applied to similar situations. 

In society, some people who have done harmful things for revenge are celebrated and called human, just like how some of our invasive plants are “too beautiful to get rid of” despite them ruining our ecosystems. Yet others who have done the same harmful things are condemned and called inhuman, like how other invasive plants are to be exterminated and are seen as “ugly.” I’m interested in how these contradictions bleed between the perceptions of human nature and plants. 

I experimented with framing and layering to give the plants an imposing, intense look. Typically, plants aren’t intimating, but, by having plants overtake and go outside the frame makes them more intense. In Parasites (And Their Feeder), I created a wooden frame so that the plants were entrapping the figure inside. In all of my pieces, there’s layering to be seen, like the tree branches in Heavenly Ideology. The layering pushes the plants outward to be frontmost in the piece, creating a dominating look. The plants being imposing and intense helps to communicate that these plants represent something “inhuman” and negative. With my series, I hope viewers will be able to self reflect about their own perceptions of things, especially relating to human nature.