Play / Ground

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Nettle (Ortie)

The stinging nettle (ortie in french) is a cosmopolitan ruderal plant, and can be found in all temperate zones of Europe, Asia and America, and settles in typical ruderal locations. As such, it grows in human-influenced locations such as waste, rubbish and farmyards, path and roadsides.

At Jean Jacques Rousseau Parc the far end of the land was left untouched for many years. the area is now full with nettle and many other ruderal plants.

the nettle is known for his medicinal properties but he is also known as a main ingredient in many Romanian dishes and as a source for strong and long fibers.

when I went to hunt some nettles, (armed with gloves and shears) I realized there are two kinds of nettle in the parc. the green nettle and the purple nettle. At first glance the purple one looked the strongest and the longest, but over time I figured that it is more difficult to handle so I was left with the green one, which is also more common.

The process of producing nettle fibers includes crushing the nettles along their length, by foot or by tool (hammer, pliers), making a notch from bottom to top, opening the pill and taking out all the inner woody part.

The outer fiber part is then hung out to dry.

The dried Nettle fibers are turned and twisted by hand to create a strong and long natural fiber rope.

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00021

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00021

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from Rousseau herbarium

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http://www.rorymcewen.com/

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http://langbaumann.com/

Lang / Baumann

Beautiful Tube #2 at Parc Jean Jacques Rousseau

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Tanya Marcuse

Normal Plant, 2009     23 x 28" 

The series “Bountiful” portrays a collection of wax agricultural models housed at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York.  A man named James Lawson made these models in the early decades of the twentieth century. During the summers between 1920 and 1935, Lawson came to stay and work in Geneva, producing extraordinarily meticulous models of fruit, vegetable and other botanical specimens. He even incorporated his own body hair in some of them, for example for the spindly roots of the carrots and radishes.

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JJR KANGA

Thinking of Invasive species and Human migration 

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Romania, the making of Amadou (tinder fungus) hat

from rumaenien-adventskalender

Thinking of Botanical Leather

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Subtle Unnatural Mechanism

An Imaginary collection of artifacts I made-up to preserve, imitate and bring new life into the live and still nature.

GIF files describing the movement of assembled solar panels and small motors

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The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody. ”

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality, 1754