Poison Plant Samplers
Sally-Ann Rowland has spent the past year as the Australian representative in P.S. 1’s studio program producing a seductive and seditious exhibition of carefully embroidered and beaded samplers. They’re not your traditional needlework. Each one contains a motto and a flower or plant which, lovely as they are, are all toxic in some way: poison ivy, nightshade and belladonna, and a couple of deadly mushrooms. The phrases range from the passive-aggressive “Just Kidding” to “It Matters to Me” (some of a gunman’s final words before a rampage at the University of Arizona). The emotionally distancing, even disturbing, phrases come in ironically appealing colors and glittery beads.
Charlie Suisman, Manhattan User’s Guide, 2003 |
Looking like something you might find in Martha Stewart’s prison cell, Sally-Ann Rowland’s pretty, beaded cross-stitched samplers lend a dose of acid to a fondly domestic pursuit. Instead of ‘Home Sweet Home’ or other such saccharine homilies, Rowland’s framed embroidery sports terms of resignation, like ‘Oh well’ or ‘I don’t understand’, or even expletives. Don’t look for cherubs or butterflies cavorting about her handiwork either: Poisonous plants and mushrooms are the subject matter, alluding to the historical association between females and poisoning.
Ellen Fox, ‘Home sweet home isn’t all that sweet’, Chicago Tribune, 2004
Ellen Fox, ‘Home sweet home isn’t all that sweet’, Chicago Tribune, 2004
Amanita virosa or the death angel mushroom is all white in colour and contains the toxicant alpha-Amanitin. Amatoxins are lethal in small doses and not destroyed by heat. Amanita virosa is one of the most poisonous species with as little as half a mushroom causing fatal damage to the liver. Symptoms do not occur until some hours after eating and there is no definitive antidote. Immature specimens can resemble edible species including the portabello mushroom.
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Amanita muscaria, or fly agaric mushroom is a large white gilled, white-spotted and usually red mushroom principally associated with deciduous and coniferous forests. Although it is classified as poisonous, human deaths are rare and the mushroom is known for its hallucinogenic qualities. Widely encountered in culture and religion, a familiar association with the mushroom is the distortion in the size of objects following ingestion captured in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
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Toxicodendron radicans, or poison ivy is a flowering plan with oily resins that cause an itchy rash in contact with skin. The plant typically grows as a vine or shrub in wooded areas and in urban areas. The leaf arrangements are clustered in groups of three leaflets. The plant may have yellow or green flowers, and white to green-yellow berries.
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Atropa belladonna or nightshade is a perenial herbacious plant that is toxic when ingested, causing delirium and hallucinations. The plant has a long history of use both in medicine including as an anesthetic and as a poison. Atropa is the name of one of the three Fates in Greek mythology and the name "Bella donna" recalls the use to dilate women's pupils to make them more attractive.
Digitalis or foxglove is a genus used for the extraction of the medicine digitalin, used as in heart medication since the 1600s. Due to its varying deadly physiological effects the plant it has acquired additional sinister names including dead man's bells and witch's gloves. The entire plant is toxic although mortality is rare. |