HONESTY

2011 / Object / Variable dimensions

Cannabis plant

The work consists of a small greenhouse in which a cannabis plant grows from seed. This process takes place inside an art institution, which assumes responsibility for its care and growth. The plant remains as an artistic object, safeguarded within the museum space as an inviolable realm. It must never be used for narcotic purposes: its existence rests solely on its condition as an artistic gesture.

In this context, marijuana is decontextualized and reconfigured. What is usually perceived as a drug is shifted into another register: that of a work in process. The piece offers a different perspective on an object saturated with political, criminal, and social stigmas. Removed from the machinery of illicit trade and the narrative of consumption, the plant is presented as just another species, growing slowly with care and attention, becoming a metaphor for a vital cycle outside prohibition and prejudice.

Honesty ultimately proposes the transformation of a symbol of conflict into an act of transparency and care, questioning the boundary between what is condemned and what is contemplated.