i am an old phenomenon

Ann Shelton, bruised and burned, (vervain, enchanter’s plant, herb of the cross, Juno’s tears, herba sacra, Herbe Sacrée, divine weed, herba veneris, Herb of Grace), 2026

Ann Shelton

Two Rooms
16 Putiki Street, Grey Lynn, Auckland

5 June - 11 July 2026

Opening preview Thursday 4 June 5.30 - 7.30 PM

Part of the Auckland Festival of Photography

Plants act on us: they stain, intoxicate, soothe, inflame and alter our bodies. In i am an old phenomenon, plants are in motion and reaction: they burn, rot, float, and sink. They are wet, submerged and carnal. Drawing on medicinal and folkloric histories, these photographs evoke the permeable boundaries between plant and human worlds. Botanical specimens have long been collected, classified and named; photography is deeply entangled with these imperial systems of ordering. Ann Shelton's images resist this containment. Plants expand beyond their frames, occupying unbounded, indeterminate spaces untethered from geography and taxonomy. With these works, Ann creates a rhizomatic archive in which histories and associations remain shifting, accumulative, and incomplete.

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