ISABELLA GUTTUSO
UNDERGRADUATE, CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY
Our Purpose: Bidens Alba
abaca paper, Bidens Alba seed, socks
Humans see many systems within nature as a nuisance in their everyday lives, forgetting that they often play a crucial role in said system. This misunderstanding of our place within a natural cycle can easily be seen as an annoyance when it seems we have nothing to gain. These are cycles that need to be reworked with education and explanation. In the case of the Spanish Needles, if we change our view from one of frustration towards having to pluck seeds from our socks, to a positive comprehension of our place as an animal in the plants life cycle, when we see the seeds we can imagine the pollinators we will be feeding when the seeds we pluck grow into flowers. If we work to question what we naively think of nuisances, our compassion for the natural world can only grow. Each butterfly, constructed from abaca paper, natural dyes, ink, and watercolor also have an underside of seeds. Each of these butterflies can be planted; physically creating a patch of the flowers, allowing the recipient to begin a new relationship with the plant, pollinators, and their place within the natural world.
