Izat Arif
2025
PVC, Steel Rods, Soil,
Single Channel Video with audio (4:48 mins) LED Lights,
digital print on paper
300 cm x 200 cm x 200 cm
2025
A store bought plastic greenhouse will act as a interrogation, confinement, and deportation tent. A non existent, exclusionary space contained within a seemingly inclusive state. A conversation takes place. Entities are put under surveillance within its former fabricated glass and steel enclosure complete with a forgery of its climate.
Condensation will gradually accumulate on the camera lens, making the image stale without focus or contrast.
The interrogator, mimics the native language with accuracy. Nevertheless, translation and intonation cannot be learned, it must be lived. The specimen does not respond to the probing of the interrogator.
It remains motionless as there is no natural breeze
This project centres around the greenhouses of botanical gardens, with a focus on the tropical plants. Expanding upon the ongoing critiques of civil, political, and ecological structures of power, the project will consider the interrelated themes of colonialism, environmental exploitation, and the (often forced), movement of botanical specimens across national borders. The methodology of a botanist is employed to observe and document species of plants indigenous to South East Asia in an attempt to trace their lineage by personifying and conducting interviews with the species and potentially chartering its safe passage back to its homeland.
This project was created during a residency at Leipzing International Art Programme, Leipzig, Germany and a collaboration with Barbara Ditsch, Curator Botanischer Garten Dresden, Dresden Univerisity of Technology, Dresden, Germany.
Other collaborators include Hugo Hernqvist and Debora Sisca.
Exhibitied in Forgotten Specimen during the Spinnerei Rundgang at Leipzig International Art Programme, Leipzig, Germany
images courtesy of the artist