George Gessert on Plants as Evolutionary Art

George Gessert traces the history of plants as art from Shakespeare to Darwin, who dissolved the boundary between nature and art. In 1936, the Museum of Modern Art in New York exhibited Edward Steichen's delphiniums, declaring horticulture a fine art. Gessert notes that selective breeding in animals only entered the art world in 1999 with Brandon Ballengée's frogs. He argues that plants, being insentient and visually oriented, offer more freedom to artists than animals. After abandoning painting in 1981, Gessert realized that creative energy belongs to materials themselves, leading him to work with self-creating plants. He highlights transgenic art by Eduardo Kac (The Eighth Day, with fluorescent organisms) and Heath Bunting (alleged crossbreeding of wild and Monsanto-modified rapeseed). Gessert warns against the human-centric view that biotechnology creates a 'new nature,' advocating instead for an art of evolution that celebrates kinship among all species.