work in progress / digital photography / archival material / 2024
In Europe, between the 14th and 17th centuries, there was extensive use of psychotropic herbs, particularly those from the Solanaceae family, such as Atropa Belladonna and Mandrake. These plants, found in the countryside and forests, represented a confluence of popular knowledge, magic, and botany.
The properties of these plants, rich in highly toxic elements known as alkaloids, were utilized in various contexts in medieval societies. Their uses ranged from escapist purposes to alleviate the misery of reality, to empirical-scientific applications in the practice of alchemy.
A curious anonymous manuscript, preserved at the University Library of Pavia and analyzed in 2000 by the scholar Vera, details the connection between these plants and various aspects of society. This herbarium, believed to date back to around 1300, contains a cultural subtext concerning the use of alkaloid-based plants for medicinal and magical purposes, such as the preservation of mercury and silver, or instructions for harvesting certain plants linked to cosmic powers.
This document differs from traditional herbariums in the way the plants are illustrated; they are not drawn realistically but painted in a manner comprehensible only to the initiated. What characterizes the historical-cultural phenomenon related to the use of these plants is the deep-seated belief in the principles of natural magic, which embodies the desire to transcend and surpass the appearances of nature through the transformation of body and consciousness.
Mydriasis, the dilation of the pupil, occurs when the body is influenced by psychotropic substances, leading to altered states of consciousness that provoke sensations of wonder and unease. Mydriasis symbolizes the transformation of the body through the blurred and unusual perception of reality, as well as the symbolic inner transformation of consciousness.
The installation interprets the phenomenon of mydriasis as a physical and conceptual consequence of the use of Solanaceae, in relation to a specific historical-cultural context, drawing inspiration from the unique contents of the 14th-century herbarium. The work comprises photographs that attempt to display a dissociative and unusual vision of reality, the extraction of two illustrations from the manuscript, and a photograph produced with lenticular printing. This printing method renders the image in motion and unclear, aiming to interpret the mechanisms of disguising esoteric knowledge, which alchemists and herb connoisseurs have sought to preserve and conceal from ecclesiastical authorities for centuries.
Only through the willingness to move and see does the image reveal itself; this gesture evokes a magical and significant dimension, and similarly recalls the indistinct and dreamlike vision of mydriasis.
