The Traveling Plant: Preparatory Logbook

Kathy High with Dr. Michael Long

Plants for Hard Times

Troy, New York, USA
Artist / professor (Kathy High) – with scientist (Michael Long), BAT Lab (BioArt and Technology Laboratory), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY. USA

The pandemic hit us all hard. Everything closed down. The lab was closed, locked up. Shut down. We had to leave all the research behind.

After three and a half months we returned to the lab at the biotech center. The plants had been on their own that entire time. My colleague, Michael – Dr. Long, had left the plants under grow lights, all of them under the glow of the purple light. Left alone, unattended for those months.

The plants were mostly dead when examined. Each in their individual sterile vile. But surprisingly, it turned out, there were some amazing signs of life.

Michael noticed it first. He took pictures of them. While most of the plants had died, there were some that had produced amazing flowers. Michael called them the “flowers of hope” given the moment.

We took the flowering plants home. We planted them in our gardens, on the graves of our loved ones. They will flourish and seed and travel. Released from the lab thanks to COVID-19.