Surface, Sample, Site with JAYU x Gallery 44

Every day without permission, a bird brings to me 
Wet-haired memories of Chile’s melodious reverie,
Plucked, dragged and tagged like a commodity
Kidnapped and mapped into a world of foreign unfamiliarity;

Surface, Sample and Site.

X marks the spot, 
It’s where you can find her on a manmade map leading you to a manmade Chile.
A plant without a land rooted in colonialism and capitalism, 
X marks the Chilean spot.

He undressed her with His bare hands and unearthed every stem of her
unnerved her with the slow, subtle, scrupulous plucking of petals, one at a time.
They were once friends, now foes. She was once a wellspring, now a resource.
and He continues to take what’s hers to give, forcibly, ferociously.

Surface, Sample and Site.

She becomes a reservoir of hope and wounds.

A collection of fallen petals begs the question:
Does she bloom as green in a Canadian summer as she does in a Chilean one?
When the first leaf changes colour, does it change a minute earlier, longing for her homeland?
When it snows, does the stem feel colder than it would at home, surrounded by her family?
Do her flowers bud so effortlessly and beautifully as they would with the help of Chilean hands?
A collection of fallen petals dance around the ground like fallen warriors, 
Does she yearn for her mother like a child lost?

Surface, Sample and Site.

To be plucked, dragged and tagged like a commodity 
Kidnapped and mapped into a world of foreign unfamiliarity,
On display for the horny eyes,
Beauty in the known, ugly in the unknown.
You no longer need to travel to Chile, just take the highway to the Van Dusen Botanical Garden 
Thirteen dollars charged, 
Thirteen dollars invoiced for the inconvenience of uprooting  
Thirteen dollars for the price of imperialism and
Thirteen steps to thirteen countries; one of them Chile. 
A landscape without a land for the oligarchy.

Surface, Sample and Site.

Do these trees find refuge in a home away from home?
Do they thrive in land that is not their own?
Does she cry for her mother, while naked in a gated garden?
And is it a betrayal? Is it a betrayal when a Chilean tree thrives on Canadian soil?

Is it enough to hammer solutions into wounded trees and guide gilded deers back to their streams? 

Is a gesture of good faith enough to make up for faith lost?

Surface, Sample and Site. 

Grounded and tethered to foreign hands
Leaving Chileans longing for their roots and roots longing for Chile.

When they charge you thirteen dollars and sell you a promise of flowers and ferns 
Remember it is plucked, dragged and tagged like a commodity
Kidnapped and mapped into a world of foreign unfamiliarity.