Molly Wood x Sioux City Art Center
Molly Wood
The Poison Garden
Des Moines photographer Molly Wood has an ongoing fascination with the duality of botanicals—the seductive potential for flora to be toxic in one form and healing in another. A single plant might produce edible berries, medicinal roots, and poisonous seeds. Knowing which is critical. Wood’s years of research led her to medicinal gardens of medieval healers—all women, 16th-century grimoires, and, historical accusations of witchcraft.
Please join us on Saturday, November 13, 2021, from 5:00 – 7:00 pm for the Opening Reception of Molly Wood: The Poison Garden!
“The Fatal Flora Series relates to toxic relationships and uses plants than can be medicinal or poisonous as symbols of the contradictions within human connections. These complex plants have been used by women for centuries for sustenance, healing, and possibly poisoning and witchcraft. I believe that botanicals can be used as metaphors for the natural cycles of life, death, and rebirth as well as the complexity and duality of experiences in life that can be part healing and part toxic.
In growing and handling these dangerous plants throughout their growth cycles, I am studying their seductive beauty as well as taming and controlling their deadly potential. “ - Molly Wood
