Graphic Weeds Inventory
Thesis research, 2017
For my thesis research, I collected and classified the shapes produced from the ripping of the ads in the subway platforms in New York. These species were then paralleled with the spontaneous vegetation phenomena that appears on the streets.
Calling them weeds decontextualizes a particular flora term into a graphic context, which unfolds a symbolical dimension of the word “weed”. This dimension is related to something that is not desirable, that invades and ruins a specifically planned order, that doesn’t belong there –an intruder.
These shapes have grown, adapted and survived to the different manipulations that occurred in the subway, just as the plants do. And because of their “invasive” characteristics that disrupt the ads. They are “removed” and “replaced” regularly, but they continue to appear or “grow” because they are a part of the ecosystem of the subway platforms.
Calling them weeds decontextualizes a particular flora term into a graphic context, which unfolds a symbolical dimension of the word “weed”. This dimension is related to something that is not desirable, that invades and ruins a specifically planned order, that doesn’t belong there –an intruder.
These shapes have grown, adapted and survived to the different manipulations that occurred in the subway, just as the plants do. And because of their “invasive” characteristics that disrupt the ads. They are “removed” and “replaced” regularly, but they continue to appear or “grow” because they are a part of the ecosystem of the subway platforms.
