Home Grown

Passagen Konsthall, Linköping, Sweden

April 26 - May 31, 2003

In April/May 2003 I participated in a show entitled HOME GROWN at the Passagen Konsthall in Linköping, Sweden. The show opened in the midst of the US invasion of Iraq. My contribution included 3 related works: The first, “Victory Garden,” was installed at the Konstall entrance. It consisted of 2 garden patches of earth. delimited by low white picket fencing, planted on either side of the entry path, and stretching from the windows up front to the rear wall of the gallery, where a color photograph was hung. The work was inspired by the practice of “victory gardening”: the home growing of vegetables, mainly by women, popularized as a patriotic rite during the First and Second World Wars. In addition to this reference, the work addressed the agricultural use of genetically modified organisms, and suggested a relationship between the petrochemical industry and the present war. Instead of conventional vegetables I planted weeds, collected mostly from the grounds of the Saab Aerospace and Defense company, whose headquarters are in Linköping. The photograph is a remake of a 1940s image of a woman presenting an especially large cabbage, apparently raised in her victory garden. The original image was used for the exhibition announcement.

A second work was called “System Potatis,” derived from the name of the Swedish State retail liquor monopoly, System Bolaget. I recreated its logo exchanging “Potatis” for “Bolaget,” and hung a print of the altered logo on the wall adjacent to the corridor where 2 video monitors were mounted up high on either side. The monitors displayed live closed-circuit images of potato plants growing. The potatoes were planted in an inaccessible area of the gallery basement, monitored by 2 tiny surveillance cameras. “System Potatis” was an attempt to think about the practice of state-controlled alcohol production and distribution in Sweden; particularly in relation to illegal home distillation, which is widespread throughout the country. A more general theme involved the intensification of policing and surveillance activities worldwide, most especially in the US. Putting the potatoes under surveillance, the question posed was, “at what point does a potato become illegal?” As a corollary, the potato is the most common genetically modified crop; genetic engineering is a form of internal policing – that is, policing at the level of DNA, “doped” with a marker to control the seed’s use.

The third work I did at Passagen was a sort of karaoke room for a piece originally shown a year earlier in Los Angeles: “The Star Spangled Banner: Karaoke Version.” The source track for the US National Anthem (The Star Spangled Banner) was Jimmy Hendrix’s performance at Woodstock, to which I added the subtitles, inviting people to sing along – a difficult task given Hendrix’s rambling interpretation. The room, which included video projection with a microphone and amplification system cranked up rock n’ roll-loud, was located in a lower level gallery, beneath “Victory Garden.” At a time when American nationalistic fervor was revved up high, the piece addressed issues of patriotism, nationalism, and possibilities for democratic initiative, while revisiting an especially charged instance of 60s utopian aspiration. The provocation seemed particularly relevant as restrictions on US immigration and citizenship were being redoubled; and civil liberties and democratic processes put under attack. The piece asks: “who wants to be an American?” “what does it mean?” and, “who is entitled?”

— Stephan Pascher, 2004

Curatorial Statment