Once assigned my exhibition space, I took measurements and photos. I consulted books and discussed ideas with classmates, professors, and workshop technicians. During one of these conversations, Abi Simmons showed me a book featuring small glass vials containing photographic transparencies, which inspired my exhibition mounting approach.
In tutorials with my supervising professors, the "scientific" or "laboratory" appearance was critiqued as representing a "materialistic" Western understanding of the plant world. After much deliberation, I decided to present my project as a laboratory – but an antique, vintage, Victorian one. Here, these beings or fairy tales would be stored or trapped in laboratory jars, evoking a science in exile where the universe was understood as animated, and natural beings, forces, and spirits coexisted with and above human existence.
