Edmonton artist crafts ghostly house plants from white felt

Edmonton artist Taiessa began making highly detailed reproductions of common houseplants sewn from white felt during the pandemic. Today, a selection of those odd white plants are showing in the storefront window at the Esker Foundation, a contemporary art space in Calgary, giving passersby something to think about as they stroll the city’s trendy Inglewood strip.

How did the plant project start?

During the COVID lockdown, I was at home surrounded by many houseplants that over the years had accrued through exchange with friends and family members, and strangers that I had connected with over the Internet, just grown from small clippings.

You’re a big houseplant person?

I am. There’s quite a few in my home. I was just playing around, familiarizing myself with some different processes with sewing machines. People seeing the work will think that I have some expertise in sewing: I know how to do this one thing specifically after a few years of work.

It’s a bit like quilting, isn’t it?

Yeah. I use a free-motion quilting foot. I start by looking really closely at the plants. I do some drawings of them, try and understand how the veining patterns, the texture of the leaves and everything works together. And from there I almost use the thread as a drawing tool.

I was invited to participate at an artist-run centre in Edmonton, Latitude 53, that was showing work that had been made in isolation through the early days of the pandemic. And from there the work kept rolling, but no longer in isolation. I applied to the Harcourt House Artist Run Centre’s year-long residency program. And that’s where a majority of the work was produced.

Why are the plants white?

I was watching the plant buy-sell-trade groups online. There’s always trends in plant collecting. I was really interested in plant clippings that had variegation: What was really popular were monstera plants that had white and cream splashes on half the leaf. I was curious about that, what makes the plant like that and why is it going for such a high price?

I’m not a botanist or biologist, but I learned that the plants lack chlorophyll in those areas. That was very resonant to me, something to chew on because chlorophyll is the necessary component for plants to sustain their own lives. It grew into bigger questions: How futile is this to keep trying to grow and cultivate plants that can’t actually sustain themselves?

Were you working out something about our manipulation of nature?

Definitely. You know in this part of the world, we treat them as houseplants, but they come from environments where they grow so much larger and have the conditions that they need to thrive.

I was trying to understand why these plant prices were climbing so high ­– clippings that were already over $100, sometimes $200, were suddenly jumping up to like $500, $600, $700 for a clipping that didn’t even have roots fully developed. A big part was shipping restrictions in the pandemic – it was a lot harder to import plants.

There were parallels with imperial expansion and the use of greenhouses to grow wealth, and of plants to serve as a form of social capital as well. To me, there are really clear ties between past imperial and colonial violence and the ongoing impacts of resource extraction, the lack of respect for the land and the labour conditions of people who might be harvesting plants, the huge environmental cost of the shipping, the plane, the plastic wrap. There were layers and layers to unpack.

In Calgary, the plants are displayed in crates, as though they were about to be packed up and shipped – or just arrived from some exotic climate. Previously you had shown them in those old-style glass display cases for plants. Why the change?

The crates were newly built for the exhibit at the Esker Foundation. In previous exhibitions, there were references to terrarium and Wardian cases, so a lot more Victorian. But it felt like it was missing that clear tie to transport and relocation.

You are making me think about the houseplant as a capitalist luxury. But the piece is also unsettling; they are albino plants. Is that a common reaction?

There’s a mix of responses: Some people do feel that kind of sombre air to the work. They see them as ghosts of plants or like bleached coral reefs.

I also end up hearing a lot of stories about people’s relationships to plants and even heritage plants that have been passed down for generations in their family. Caring for our plants can offer a different model of exchange rather than having to accrue and hoard wealth.

Do you have any white plants yourself?

I ended up last fall acquiring one because it’s no longer in high demand. The price had gone down from $700 to $60. They’ve even been entering hardware stores, Home Depot and Canadian Tire.

Variegata by Taiessa is showing at the Esker Foundation, 1011 – 9th Avenue S.E., Calgary, to Feb. 2. Works in the same series will be included in what we leave, what we take, a group show in a series celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton, opening March 8.

This interview has been edited and condensed.