CLASS DESCRIPTION
 
For centuries, scientific, literary, and artistic narratives of plant reproduction have been utilised to oppress those not identified as white, male, and heterosexual. But alongside this oppression, vegetal sexualities and modes of parenthood have always simultaneously posed a disrupting force, pushing tendrils of plurality into binary systems, flourishing resolutely in the cracks of accepted conceptions of gender roles, motherhood, sexuality, and parental responsibility within the colonial-patriarchal system.
 
Taking a cue from horror-genre representations of uncontainable plants, the swollen pregnant body, and the bloody blossoming of childbirth, this lecture weaves a path through Victorian notions of “mothering” houseplants, mythical pregnant trees, self-fertilising shrubs, and Indigenous relations of “multi-maternal” care for children and plants. An ecofeminist perspective is used throughout to track some of the ways in which, together, plant knowledge and (m)otherhood might offer ways to disrupt damaging societal norms.
 
ABOUT OUR LECTURER
 
Anna Souter (she/her) is a writer, researcher, and curator with an interest in the intersections between contemporary art, place, and ecology. As an art critic and journalist, her work has been published by The Architectural Review, Burlington Contemporary, The Guardian, Hyperallergic, and Resurgence & Ecologist, among others. Her curatorial projects include collaborations with Omved Gardens, Roman Road, Lychee One, and RCA Critical Practice. She also writes fiction and has participated in research groups and residencies with Kone Foundation, Corridor8, Exposed Art Projects, and Artquest Peer Forum at Camden Art Centre. and has participated in research groups and residencies with Kone Foundation, Corridor8, Exposed Art Projects, and Artquest Peer Forum at Camden Art Centre.
 
INSTAGRAM: @annasouter
WEBSITE: https://annasouter.net/

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This is a recording of a live session hosted by The Feminist Lecture Program in April 2025. The reading list for the class can be found alongside this rental.

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