Plant Stress by Moritz Fehr, 2024
(mixed media installation: video screen, photo prints, plastic tubes, MDF, colored lights)
In the installation Plant Stress, Moritz Fehr engages with the term of the same name, which is borrowed from scientific discourse and refers to unfavorable conditions or the effect of substances that disrupt the metabolism and growth of plants. Plant stress can be caused by various harmful environmental factors and often occurs in realms that can only be perceived by the human sensory system with the help of technical devices – one such cause of damage being exposure to excessive ultraviolet radiation.
Fehr’s video and photo series are exclusively filmed and photographed in the ultraviolet spectrum. They show the cultural gesture of sunscreen application: an act that is usually performed to protect human skin from damaging solar radiation – in this work it is transferred to various plants. The sunscreen, itself a harmful factor for the environment, forms a shimmering dark layer on the plants, protecting them from the incoming UV rays. Since this protective shield absorbs the UV light, it appears black and thus lets the depicted flowers and leaves to disappear.
The work is a metaphor for the question whether it is possible to behave emphatically towards nature: on the one hand, when it is already completely permeated and modified by human impact, and on the other, when natural processes are disturbed in ways that elude the human perceptual apparatus and thus standards or references for a direct engagement are unavailable.
Special thanks to Prof. Marcel Jansen, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UCC University College Cork, Ireland.
Plant Stress (SPF 50) was created during a Glenkeen Garden Residency of the Crespo Foundation (Frankfurt a.M.) in West Cork, Ireland.
Video: Plant Stress (SPF 50), 2022, single-channel HD video, no sound, 42:00 min.
Photos: Plant Stress (SPF 30), 2024, seven-part photo series, 80cm x 60cm.
