KNOT BLEED




NOVEMBER 2018
japanese knotweed, english ivy, beet juice, iron hook, twine, dry ice

displayed at COLLECTIVE SKIN (Frame Gallery, Nov 30 2018, Heidi Wiren Bartlett

Photos by Stephen Solomon
Reynoutria japonica is an invasive species that quickly takes root, that seems to consume past the point of symbiosis. It is simply doing what it is supposed to do: survive. Knotweed has a large underground network of roots. In today’s Pittsburgh, those roots hold our hills together through climate change-catalyzed erosion, holding tight to the land that has been their home.

Collecting this knotweed, I witnessed a war frozen in time: kudzu and knotweed twisted in a battle of survival, halted by the frost. 

Haunch bleeds, clots on ice on knotweed. Ice evaporates, clot stands alone.