The green house is akin to a ‘Wardian case’, a glazed container invented by Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward. The case is designated to conserve plants (or whole ecosystems) by keeping the hydrology level relatively undisturbed for the ecosystem to remain intact during long travels. The case was used as an instrument of colonial powers enabling them to ship large amounts of botanical specimens afar and thus build new plantations.

If you think of the inputs it takes to make a garden you soon realise that resonances of displacement, expropriation and exploitation are echoing at every inch. Take the inputs such as seeds, the peat soil used to propagate seedlings, the ducks, the duck food. All elements have been taken, carried or extracted in some way. In that sense the garden cannot be seen in a neutral light as it is also deeply entangled with colonial discourses and exploitative practices.

Although, I am still negotiating wether we can call seeds displaced, because isn’t it in the interest of seeds to spread? It makes me think that the subjects of displacement also resist: they carry diseases, outcompete, reproduce, mutate, disturb.