Reading Room

Juan Ortiz-Apuy uses video, light, sculpture and a living garden to present a rhizomatic exploration of commodity fetishism, exploitation and the tensions between the natural and artificial. Born in Costa Rica, Juan’s brightly coloured, plasticized aesthetics are influenced by the commodification of the tropical rainforest he grew up so close to. As a counter point, Juan and curators Dani and Toby developed a living native garden of Lady Ferns, Licorice Ferns and Sword Ferns.

The following information is an excerpt of Saanich Ethnobotany: Culturally Important Plants of the W̱SÁNEĆ People by Nancy J. Turner and Richard J. Hebda, featuring the botanical knowledge of Saanich elders Elsie Claxton (Tsawout), Dave Elliott Sr (Tsartlip), Christopher Paul (Tsartlip) and Violet Williams (Pauquachin).

Lady Fern (LEḴLEḴÁ)

This large, delicate looking fern grows in dense clumps to a metre or more tall. The fronds spread upward from a thick, black rootstock. They are finely divided two or three times into 20 to 40 pairs of leaflets. The general shape of the fronds is lance-like: broad in the middle and tapering at both ends. The spore-bearing structures, called sori, are attached to the underside of the leaflets and look like small, dark spots.

Lady Fern only grows in wet places. It is common throughout W̱SÁNEĆ territory and thrives on the rich soil of the wooded river flats at Goldstream River. It can be found in wet forests, swamps, thickets, landslide tracks, stream banks, gullies, meadows and clearings. Lady Fern often grows with Skunk-like cabbage under Western Redcedar and Red Alder.

Traditional Use:
LEḴLEḴÁ fiddleheads were said to be good for treating tuberculosis. A tea was made from the shoots and drank over a period of time. Elsie Claxton also stated that the fiddleheads were a good medicine for many things.  

Licorice Fern (ṮESIP)

This small fern grows in patches on mossy tree trunks or rock faces. Licorice fronds remain green all winter long, but dry out and turn brown in the summer. They are usually only about 15-25cm long. Individual fronds with yellowish stalks grow from long, branching greenish-yellow rhizomes. The frond is divided into pointed leaflets, each 2-3cm long with finely toothed edges. The orange sori are found on the undersides of the fronds, in rows on either side of the leaflet veins.

Licorice Ferns can be found throughout W̱SÁNEĆ territory, and at low elevations throughout the Northwest Coast. They occasionally grow on wet, mossy ground, but usually on rock faces or tree trunks and branches, especially those of Bigleaf Maple and Red Alder.

Traditional Use: They fleshy rhizomes of ṮESIP have a strong, sweet licorice taste and were eaten fresh or dried in the sun for winter use, according to Christopher Paul. They were used as a sweetener and appetizer. Elsie Claxton also mentioned the sweet rhizomes that were used to sweeten tea and improve the taste of bitter medicines. Violet Williams noted that the ferns grow on trees and rocks, and could be gathered from anywhere. Elsie believes that the rhizomes were more effective when harvested from tree trunks, especially that of the Bigleaf Maple.  Violet mentioned that ṮESIP was particularly prevalent on the maples at Goldstream.

ṮESIP was also said to be good for treating colds, coughs, sore throats and respiratory ailments like tuberculosis. Christopher Paul and Dave Elliott notes that they were also used for stomach trouble. For coughs, a piece of the rhizome is chewed and the juice swallowed. 

Sword Fern (SŦXȺLEM)

Sword Fern has large, dark-green fronds that grow in clumps from a large root-stock. The plants are evergreen, since the new fronds emerge and mature before the previous year’s fronds start to die back. The fronds, which can reach a metre or more in height, stand stiffly up from the crown. The stipe is greenish and densely scaled. The blade has numerous narrow pointed and toothed leaflets arranged in a feather-like fashion. The young fronds begin curled, then gradually unfurl and expand. Small, brownish sori are found in rows on the undersides of some fronds. Sword Fern is a coastal specied that thrives in the shaded himus of damp coniferous forests. It often grows with Western Redcedar and Red Alder on nutrient-rich seepage sites. In such sites, fern clumps may completely cover the forest floor. They are found throughout W̱SÁNEĆ territory.

Traditional Use:

In springtime, SŦXȺLEM rhizomes were dug up, cleaned and cooked in open fires or pits. The cooked rhizomes were then peeled and eaten, usually with seal or bear grease or salmon eggs. The fronds were used to line pits for cooking root fronds and to line boxes and baskets that were to hold food.

Elsie Claxton recalled that clams were covered by Salal branches and SŦXȺLEM fronds before being pit-cooked and before they were roasted on skewers over the fire.

Dave Elliott notes, “Before the first dance of a new dancer, Sword Ferns were scattered on the floor by the two or four men who had picked them.” Because of their use in these initiation rites and in bathing rituals, SŦXȺLEM are considered to be sacred and should be treated with great reverence. Some say not to use them in cooking.

Sources:

Nancy J. Turner and Richard J. Hebda. Saanich Ethnobotany: Culturally Important Plants of the W̱SÁNEĆ People (Victoria: Royal BC Museum, 2012), 41-45.

Applying a critical lens to the veins of considerations that can be found across Juan’s work, we offer a list of readings:

Jane Bennett. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010. 

Hartmut Bohme. Fetishism and Culture: A Different Theory of Modernity. Berlin: DeGruyte, 2014. 

Ian Bogost. Alien Phenomenology, or What It's Like to Be a Thing. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012. 

Mateo Kries, et. al. (eds) Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design: 1924-today. Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design Museum, 2019.

Tristan Garcia and Vincent Normand, eds. Theater, Garden, Bestiary: A Materialist History of Exhibitions. London: Sternberg Press, 2019. 

Graham Harman. Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything. Pelican Books, 2018.

Antony Hudek, ed. The Object. London: Whitechapel Gallery and MIT Press, 2014.

Robin Wall Kimmerer. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2003.

Rem Koolhaas, “Junkspace," https://theputnamprogram.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/koolhaas-junkspace.pdf 

Mark Leckey. “Beyond Add,” in Sculpture Unlimited 2: Materiality in Times of Immateriality, Eva Grubinger and Jörg Heiser, eds. London: Sternberg Press, 2015. (attached)

Timothy Morton. Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018.

"Timothy Morton & Hans Ulrich Obrist": http://dismagazine.com/disillusioned/discussion-disillusioned/68280/hans-ulrich-obrist-timothy-morton/

Richard O. Prum. The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World – and Us. New York: Penguin Random House, 2018.

Hito Steyerl. “A Thing Like You and Me." https://www.e-flux.com/journal/15/61298/a-thing-like-you-and-me/  

Hito Steyerl. Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War. Brooklyn: Verso Book, 2019.

Michael Taussig. The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.

Michael Taussig. Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses. Routledge, 1993.

Nancy J. Turner. Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples. Victoria: Royal BC Museum, 2020 [1995].

Nancy J. Turner and Richard J. Hebda. Saanich Ethnobotany: Culturally Important Plants of the W̱SÁNEĆ People. Victoria: Royal BC Museum, 2012.