Found (abortion) Monument
At Unison Arts, New Paltz, NY 2020-2022
In the exhibition “Owning Earth” Curated By Tal Beery with Assistant Curator Erin Antonak
View of Field at Unison Arts in June 2020
Found (abortion) Monument, a two-year project in New Paltz, New York, calls attention to the history of plant medicine, herbal abortion, and ways in which people have managed their fertility throughout history. While our practice often includes gardens in which we plant herbs historically used for abortion, here we began with an existing field in which we observed many abortifacient plants already growing wild. We closely followed the growth of one large meadow from late spring to early October 2020 and then into spring 2021 and found these eight perennial plants, below, growing throughout the seasons.
Clockwise from L: Artist Landon Newton with Tree Weaves collective planning installation of parachute cord to map abortion plants; Top: Installation of yellow cord mapping a large patch of goldenrod. Top: Tree Weaves installing cord to map patches of goldenrod.
Within the meadow we mapped out a 35’ x 90’ rectangular section that contained these herbs and created walkways through it. We then used color coded parachute cord (a different color for each plant) to map the locations of the many found patches of the 8 different abortifacient herbs shown above.
View of meadow showing pink parachute cord that mapped milkweed (in bloom) that includes the label with QR code.
Once the mapping with cord was complete, we added labels that contained the name of each plant as well as a QR code leading to an Instagram page that offered more information about each one. Open Instagram at the bottom of the page.
Image shows white parachute cord used to map various patches of Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus Carota, Wild Carrot), in the meadow at Unison.
The images show some of the mapped Queen Anne’s Lace patches. The banner at the top shows the information about the herbs available on Instagram via QR code. Each of the 8 plants had a similar information panel on how to perform an abortion’s Instagram page.
Image top: shows three Instagram banners with related landscapes showing parachute cord; L: sumac; M: juniper; R: goldenrod; Image bottom: wide image of paths through garden showing Queen Anne’s Lace, goldenrod, bea balm.
Printed mesh sign based on the the information for Milkweed on Instagram installed in field, summer-fall 2022
Although the pandemic had brought questions of abortion access into wider public awareness during Owning Earth’s opening season in 2021, we decided to make knowledge about the plants’ functions available only on small labels through QR codes that led to more information on how to perform an abortion’s Instagram page. However, during the second season in 2022, with the ban on Roe foreshadowed and soon to be enacted, we decided to turn the informational graphics available on our Instagram page into printed mesh banners and install them in the meadow, adjacent to the plants mapped with parachute cord.
Image shows 6 different views of Found (abortion) Monument, collaged onto the architectural plan and placed approximately where they grew and were mapped, providing perspectives over time of day and through the 2021 and 2022 spring/summer seasons.
Since Found (abortion) Monument is too large to represent in a single photograph, the collage directly above showing multiple views of the designated outdoor space presented in the context of the architectural drawing that outlines the 35’ x 90’ plan also showing the paths and perimeters. It is meant to evoke a kind of virtual walk through the meadow.
The title for the installation, Found (abortion) Monument was determined in the context of the recognition of un-monumental deeds behind many revered historical monuments. How to perform an abortion participated in pedagogical workshops and actions calling attention to the statues honoring Dr. J Marion Sims (the so-called father of gynecology) who performed experimental reproductive surgery on enslaved women in the 19th Century without consent or anesthesia. After the Sims monument was removed from its location at 5th Avenue and 103rd St. in NYC in 2018, the collective began to consider what forms and spaces might better represent reproductive justice. Because the plants used for abortion throughout history were discovered growing wild and became allies to pregnant people over millennia, it seemed that any field or meadow in which such herbs are found, literally, as weeds, could be considered a monument to abortion and reproductive health. Similar garden/monuments exist globally and could be mapped like Found (abortion) Monument.
Owning Earth, 2021-2022, an outdoor sculptural exhibition Curated By Tal Beery with Assistant Curator Erin Antonak, featured 20 original installations that challenged notions of ownership and domination over our environments and imagined alternatives based in mutuality and reverence. Artists: Sariah Park, Colin Lyons, Jean-Marc Superville Sovak, Brooke Singer, Christy Gast, Eliza Evans, Emilie Houssart, Matthew Friday & Alex Young, Alejandro Chellet, Melinda Kiefer, Sam Spillman, Eileen Wold, Eleanor King & Lucy Pullen, Michael Asbill & Derek Stroup, Joel Olzak, Sarah Max Beck, Robert C Beck, and How to Perform an Abortion (Maureen Connor, Landon Newton and Kadambari Baxi with Eugenia Manwelyan) Support for Found (abortion) Monument was provided by Abortion Conversation Project and Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Fund.