monster heart

“Monster Heart” was an installation created for "Cultivating Connection", a three-person exhibition curated by Rebecca Travis at Open Studio Contemporary Printmaking Centre in Toronto in March-April 2023. Fifteen Monstera clippings were each letterpress printed with a short text, collectively comprising a "living poem", which took root in water-filled mason jars over the course of the 6 week exhibition, where they remained in a suspended state of potential propagation for the duration of the show. The jars were arranged on floating shelves to mimic a kind of written verse formation. And indeed, horticultural clippings may be seen as akin to the print multiple and practice of editioning.

Monstera plants are often described as having unusually large heart-shaped leaves, with the name Monstera originating from the Latin “monstrum” meaning monstrous or abnormal—but may also refer to an omen or portend. The poem plays on the idea of the monstrous in relation to our relationship to nature (and, more specifically, the domesticated-exotic), probing the fragile line between giving and taking, love and possession. At the end of the exhibition, the rooting verses were given away to members of the community along with instructions of how to plant and care for the clippings.