Last Look: Context is Everything by Monique Martin

Monique Martin’s expansive public art exhibit Context is Everything closes on November 10. Since October 1, paper dandelions and their images set root in familiar spaces in Downtown Edmonton, bringing with them light, colour and a message of hope. Monique Martin’s print series Critical Pieces will remain on display in the Alley of Light Art Boxes into the new year. 

In preparing this exhibit, we reflected on the rich symbolism of the dandelion. Dandelions are complex symbols for growth and resilience. They are non-native to these territories and non-invasive; supposedly noxious, yet edible and medicinal. Context is Everything cultivates the categorical and symbolic ambivalence between wildflowers and weeds, while honouring the complex materiality of a plant with stories and propagations of its own. When context is everything, what can the dandelion mean to you? 

Keep the dandelion in mind this winter with these readings on dandelions, Invasive Species and Growing in Harsh Ground:

Nicholas Reo, “'Every plant and animal is useful to us': Indigenous professor re-thinking how we deal with invasive species,” interview by Rosanna Deerchild, Unreserved, CBC Radio, April 20, 2018. https://bit.ly/3kSFfE8. 

Caitlin Berrigan, “Life Cycle of a Common Weed,” 2012, in The Multispecies Salon, ed. Eben Kirksey (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2014), 154-180. https://www.multispecies-salon.org/berrigan/

Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, “Blasted Landscapes (and the Gentle Arts of Mushroom Picking),” in The Multispecies Salon, ed. Eben Kirksey (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2014), 87-109. https://www.multispecies-salon.org/tsing/

Nicholas Reo, Kyle Whyte, Darren Ranco, Jodi Brandt, Emily Blackmer, and Braden Elliott, “Invasive Species, Indigenous Stewards, and Vulnerability Discourse,” American Indian Quarterly 41, no. 3 (2017), 201–23. doi:10.5250/amerindiquar.41.3.0201. https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.dartmouth.edu/dist/9/52/files/2012/10/Reo_etal_AIQ_invasive_species_2017.pdf