The use of tissue culture allows for the cultivation of plants without going through the phases of fertilization and seeding, and thus allows the farmer to control the quality of the tree and its fruit. A microscopic bit of tissue taken from a plant is placed on a sterile, artificial support, developing into a “vegetative fetus” from which the plant develops. The entire growth process is undertaken without earth, under carefully controlled laboratory conditions, while the “farmers” tend to the seeds wearing gloves and green masks.

In addition to raising questions about agriculture and genetic engineering, this work examines the relationships between various categories – the same relationships examined by historical cabinets of wonder: those between domesticated and civilized forms, the natural and the artificial, the technological and the archaic. This work also raises questions concerning the price paid for the human effort to control, fix, organize, and catalogue.

Courtesy of the Rahan Meristem, Kibbutz Rosh Hanikra.

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