Weeds of Cultivation
2023-2025
Weeds of Cultivation was the culmination of a residency with Irving House, Community Heritage Site and New Westminster Public Art. It is presented alongside Arrangements a project created by fellow artist in residence, Janet Wang.
Weeds of Cultivation includes mixed media artworks reproduced as vinyl wallpaper and a vinyl border pattern installed on the windows of the annex building adjacent to the Irving House.
"Floral representations abound in the wallpaper, rugs, curtains, and plasterwork in Irving House; each room is as lush as any garden. Typical of decor from this time, images of plants introduced the perceived moral benefit of beauty into homes of the wealthy. In the context of early settlement -- such abundant floral interiors marked a contrast to the ecological extraction and environmental destruction taking place in the Colony of British Columbia.
This work is an invitation to consider vast, unanswered, interconnected questions -- what moral aspersions are cast upon the non-human world? How do the objects in this House reflect the material conditions from which they came? How does the past bleed into the future -- and what can we make of the uncertain present?"
-Elijah Biscoe and Holly Schmidt
Photo Credit: Rachel Topham