Becoming with Wheat: Photosynthesis-Respiration Collaborations
Couch, Amanda (2022) Becoming with Wheat: Photosynthesis-Respiration Collaborations. Performance Research, 26 (7). pp. 136-141. ISSN 1352-8165
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Rooted in a series of images and texts, these artist’s pages present fragments of Becoming with Wheat: Photosynthesis/Respiration Collaborations, daily collaborative performances presented on Instagram during the first COVID-19 UK national lockdown, June--July 2020. Part of Becoming with Wheat and Other More-Than-Human Others, which explores our interspecies relationship with wheat, as well as the other human and more-than-human entities that are entangled within the kinship, the collaborative performances between myself and Emmer wheat plants cultivated in my garden during spring and summer 2020 enact the reciprocal processes of photosynthesis and respiration: the exchange and transformation of carbon dioxide and oxygen between plant and human. Over a two-month period, I knelt over the wheat patch to take deep breaths for a few minutes each day. I videoed the actions and posted daily excerpts on my Instagram feed with accompanying written reflections. Drawing inspiration from the collaborative performances, I have developed these pages that reflect on a range of literature intersecting with air, breathing, plant--human communication, collaboration, the weather and political ecology.
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