Wild Plants of Palestine and Japanese Knotweed: Exploring Territorial Extensions, History and Colonization

Sunday, February 18, 2024

3:00 PM - 5:00 PM EST

with Alaa Abu Asad

In this class we will start by discussing ‘Wild Plants of Palestine’, which follows journeys of observational tours to collect photos and information about Palestinian flora, questioning the territorial extension of what is meant by the term “Palestinian”. The video-essay stands on insignificant topographical features of the (postcolonial) landscape in the West Bank. It also addresses photography as a practice and tool of distributing and restricting information at once.

Then we will move to an ongoing research called ‘The Dog Chased its Tail to Bite it Off’ on unwanted species, mainly known as invasive species. The reading in three acts traces the history of the Japanese Knotweed plant (Fallopia Japonica), actual policies, national campaigns of combat and control, social / economic / political effects, the conflation between natural and national history, and most importantly the language (whether verbal or visual) used when talking about the plant and other invasive species. It also imagines alternative ways of living with these species via raising questions about mass production ethics, exploitative forms of economy, and a common future.

Both works will examine the political roles plants can play throughout history, beyond their aesthetic and agricultural values, exceeding the tendency of seeing them as something to be studied, looked at and researched. Plants help us understand our position in the world, showing us a way to a liveable, common future. To be followed by a performative reading of the plant's history, and a Q&A session.