Swedish Plants is a performance piece from 1995 which was recreated in the exhibition Ground Controll at Bildmuseet, Umeå in 2020. All of the plants from a Swedish botanical book are drawn on a piece of wall, one species on top of the other, until they merge into one single shape. The artist’s intention is to free the plants from the book’s Linnaean structure and organised way of viewing nature, returning them to chaos.
The artist describes how plant names and plant knowledge is a heritage passed on to her from her mother and grandmother. It was normal for them to bring their botanical book when moving around in nature, and during Gerd Aurell’s childhood walks the names of plants and trees were rehearsed and learnt. They used the classic “Svenska växter” by Björn Ursing and the same book is now used for the drawing at Bildmuseet. The performance takes place during the first week of the exhibition and it is performed by the artist’s daughter Sofia Aurell.
