Transplanting

Tracy Brannstorm and Jenny Rafalson

Transplanting is a collaboration in photography and the social sciences. The exhibition traces the stories of humans and plant species as they move and migrate across geographical and cultural borders. It prompts the question: who gets to draw these border-lines, and what are the implications of doing so? The works are based on interviews with five Chicagoans who have immigrated to the US at different points in their lives, and who have a close relationship with plants. These conversations explored the ways that plants are cultivated, collected and controlled across different contexts, and they raised questions for Brannstrom and Rafalson about the everyday politics of plant-life: practices of designating ‘weeds’ and ‘invasive species,’ transnational flows of plant-commodities and trends, the rendering of plants as taboo objects in clinical medicine, and the ways that ‘folk’ knowledge and foraging for wild edibles can be seen as radically contesting contemporary power structures.

The exhibition includes photographic works that foreground ‘weeds’ collected in Rafalson’s neighborhood in Logan Square. These images examine how botanical forms of life are valued and classified. Here, ‘weeds’ are seen as dynamic subjects with rich social lives: centering them in portraits is an effort at defining them in alternative ways, opening up new possibilities for interaction. It also includes audio recordings, notes, clippings, articles, and photographs collected and produced over a six-month period. These highlight the messiness and excess of the research process itself – overlapping storylines and plant histories, and surprising opportunities to draw lines of connection among different actors and sites.

Transplanting is funded by the Arts, Science + Culture Initiative via the University of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute.

Tracy Brannstrom is a PhD student in Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. Her dissertation project explores how states and communities are dealing with the aftermath of the ‘opiate crisis’ in contemporary New England.

Jenny Rafalson is a recent MFA graduate in photography from the School of the Art Institute. Born in the USSR and raised in Israel, her work explores questions of immigration, belonging, and hierarchy in contemporary societies.