Sub Rosa

Sub Rosa; The secret garden of a schizophrenic interplanetary colonist.   

Sub Rosa was the result of my first winter in Tromsø, and was my first really conscious attempt at uniting text and environment in order to create a visual, nonlinear narrative. It was shown at Kurant visningsrom in the group exhibition "Set the alarmclock baby, don't miss the sun", in June 2009.

The project tells the story of a fictive character, a colonist who finding herself deep in space and far from all things natural begins to grow plants in discarded jars in a hidden corner of the spaceship. It was the story of a human in crisis, trying to recreate some fraction of a lost life. Part of the narrative was expressed through excerpts of the text from Book one & two which were pasted to some of the jars.

The space was closed off, small and dark, the only source of light being the diodes illuminating the plants and a sort of central hub. The viewer entered through a narrow gap to a room filled with glowing jars containing growths in various stages of life and decay. Each jar represented a micro environment, completely dependent on nutrition and light from outside, trapped within a finite space. It had something of the mad scientist and the sadist over it, and at the same time it was naive and curious, compelling the viewer to inspect each jar and its little world within.







The installation was accompanied by a text in the exhibition catalog, which was freely distributed to visitors. The text had a more analytical approach to the work itself, looking at the metaphorical aspect.  

 

Here is a slideshow from when I was working on the project.