The Return of the Return of the Giant Hogweed

Video Artist: Alexandra Lerman
Participation in Video Programs:
Country: ,
Year:
Duration: 4 min 47 sec

Description:

The Return of the Return of the Giant Hogweed, video, 2019, 4 min.

The video takes its inspiration from the song “The Return of the Giant Hogweed”, released by the British rock group Genesis in 1971. The song warns of the apocalyptic spread of the poisonous plant Heracleum mantegazzianum (giant hogweed) after it was “captured” in the hills of the Russian Empire and brought to Britain by Victorian botanists. The lyrics of the songs are filled with ironic humor and describe an anthropomorphized plant that is on a mission to destroy the human race. The video “The Return of the Return of the Giant Hogweed” is an updated version of the story told in the Russian language, looking at the Cold War era half a century later from the viewpoint of the giant hogweed itself, telling the story of its fall.

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2-5. Alexandra Lerman, The Return of the Return of the Giant Hogweed 22-5. Alexandra Lerman, The Return of the Return of the Giant Hogweed 2
2-5. Alexandra Lerman, The Return of the Return of the Giant Hogweed2-5. Alexandra Lerman, The Return of the Return of the Giant Hogweed

Alexandra Lerman

Alexandra Lerman born in 1980 in Leningrad, Russia. Artist. She holds a BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art (New York, USA) and an MFA from Columbia University (New York, USA). In her “projects-investigations” Lerman researches how human beings are affected by systems and ideologies that control the post-industrial world of immaterial labor and the human’s influence on the planet’s ecology. Her projects have been shown at Artists Space (New York, USA), Queens Museum (New York, USA), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, USA), Signal Center (Malmö, Sweden), Manege Exhibition Hall (St. Petersburg, Russia) and “Contemporary Art in the Traditional Museum” festival by ProArte Foundation (St. Petersburg, Russia). Lives and works in New York, USA.