Remotely Native - Sebastian Acker

REMOTELY NATIVE

(2018)
Botanical signs with QR-Codes linking to interactive online maps.

Remotely Native was a site-specific installation for Manifesta 12 in Palermo, Italy. Through botanical signs with QR codes, the work related common plants in public spaces to satellite maps of remote regions where they originate from.

Scanned with a smartphone, the interactive maps could be zoomed into and explored like Google Maps. Through the use of infrared imagery which strongly reflects chlorophyll in plant leaves, the colour magenta made healthy vegetation visible to the human eye.

This remote sensing technique, which is normally employed by farmers and scientists to monitor crops and forests, was instead used to visualise the impact of human infrastructure on vegetation and to refer to the history of both human and non-human migration.

The work was part of May the Bridges I Burn Light the Way, a Manifesta 12 Collateral Event that was curated by Exile Gallery and Maria Ines Plaza Lazo.

Remotely Native (2018), installation view (Yucca Elephantipes), Palermo, Italy

Remotely Native (2018), detail

Remotely Native (2018), screenshot of interactive satellite map (Yucca Elephantipes) showing Guatemala

Remotely Native (2018), installation view (Lime Tree), Palermo, Italy

Remotely Native (2018), screenshot of interactive satellite map (Citrus Tree) showing mountains in Myanmar

Remotely Native (2018), installation view (Chamaerops Humilis), Palermo, Italy

Remotely Native (2018), screenshot of interactive satellite map (Chamaerops Humilis) showing the coast of Tripoli

Remotely Native (2018), detail