Description
The Dry Garden is a publication composed of vignettes and reimagined material from herbaria, where plants are dried and stored for scientific purposes. Created by Magali Duzant for her 2023 exhibition at Antenna, the publication reconsiders archival histories and explores how narrative can help us build more empathetic relationships with nature. Visually, the publication is a nod to Anna Atkins’ Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, the first book of photographs ever published. Touching on subjects of colonialism, public access to science, the catty humor of botanists, and ecological catastrophes, the texts detail our inherent need as humans, with our virtues and failings, to make sense of the world.
Magali Duzant is an artist and writer based in New York and Zurich. Working in photography, text, and installation, she has published multiple artist books and created commissioned public works for Memorial Sloan Kettering, Supercollider, ABC No Rio, and Artists Alliance Inc. Her work has been widely exhibited, including at the Queens Museum (New York); Olympia (New York), Centre for Contemporary Photography (Melbourne, AU); Little Berlin (Philadelphia); UQO Gallery (Canada); the 2018 Mardin Biennial (Turkey); and Gilman Barracks (Singapore).
