Lottie Consalvo: I sense something in all of this / Cigam

We Were Never Just Weeds
By Dina Jezdić

There is a dandelion growing somewhere nearby.

Perhaps it has pushed its way through a crack in the pavement, appeared at the edge of a garden in the early days of spring, or taken hold in a patch of grass. It is familiar enough to be overlooked, most often thought of as a weed, a nuisance, something to be pulled from the ground and discarded. Yet the dandelion has a history that sits uneasily with this dismissal. For centuries, it was gathered deliberately, its young leaves eaten as a spring green, its roots used in medicine, its flowers prepared into poultice. In Arabic and Persian medical traditions, and later in European herbal practices, almost every part of the plant was valued, particularly for its associations with digestion and liver health.

What begins as a flower rooted in one place becomes hundreds of tiny travellers, each seed carried by its own parachute towards another life and possibility. Here, dispersal becomes the magic of letting go. It is a call to pay attention. The unknown may already be growing beneath our feet. And perhaps the real magic is discovering that we were never just weeds. (extract)

Dates: 17th Sept – 7th October.
Exhibition Preview: Thursday 17th Sept: 5.30pm
Artist Talk and Book Launch: Saturday 3th October (2.30pm)
Location: Föenander Galleries - 1 Faraday Street, Parnell