In this exhibit, I have created the fictional genus of plants Vernomanus (Latin for “growing hand”). The placement of the body into the landscape as a plant form emphasizes a biological connection with the landscape at the same time it renders the ordinary landscape into something disturbingly unfamiliar. Also, the photographic documentation of the plant species invites the viewer to accept the scientific “evidence” while the apparent artifice urges the viewer to question the trustworthiness of the proof that science provides.

My art is a reflection of an ongoing search for a personal relationship to the landscape. The Vernomanus work focuses on a perceived lack of intimacy with place. I see my relationship to the natural landscape as one of a visitor, albeit a frequent and interested visitor. I believe my experience to be representative for a large number of Americans that live and work in manmade, urban and suburban landscapes, and seek out the natural landscape for family outings, recreation, or relaxation. In some ways, this alienation is ironic, in that the density of visitors to our limited parks and forests sometimes forces the human visitor to quite literally become part of the natural landscape. It is also ironic in that we are biological organisms that share the same processes of growth, life and death as the organisms that make up the details of what we generalize as the landscape.

This work brings together a very personal observation of my own changing interactions with the landscape and the affected impartiality of science’s struggle to classify, categorize, and understand the processes of nature. By translating these ideas into a visual experience, I invite the viewer to begin an inquiry into his own experience of landscape.

Christine Chin, 2003