The Dignity of Plants

The aim of the graduation project The Dignity of Plants was to provoke a new ethical attitude towards nature – a hybrid between different scientific, aesthetic, moral and religious perspectives. “As the world enters the Anthropocene era, where the division between what is natural and man-made might be totally lost, I explore the question of the ‘dignity of plants’, or the ‘rights of plants’, to redefine our ethical position in relation to humans and other living species, including the animal and vegetal word. I attempt to deconstruct conventional attitudes based on false distinctions between natural and artificial, moral notions of good and bad, between our consideration for the individual and the ecosystem.”

Like the garden of Eden, Minji Choi’s garden is a miniature idealisation of nature and an idealisation of how people relate to the concept of nature. The various elements, as well as the totality, represent the ambiguous divisions and complex cohabitations between the natural and the man-made, interweaving the analogies and differences between them, such as the grass growing on a plastic imitation of grass.