Metabolic Herbarium / Plant–Body Relations, Image Making and Ecologies of Care
by paula roush
EN
Metabolic Herbarium is a pamphlet developed as part of an ongoing artistic research practice exploring relations between plants, bodies, image-making and processes of care.
The project moves away from the classical herbarium — where plants are organised as specimens — towards a metabolic field, where plants are understood through what they do: how they interact with the body, circulate across ecologies, and participate in processes of transformation.
The publication brings together fragments of text, images and protocols emerging from workshops, fieldwork and personal experience. It includes plant constellations, notes on cameraless photographic processes, decolonial archival research at Kew Library, and reflections on potions as situated compositions rather than fixed recipes.
The work is grounded in practice: staining with phytolacca, preparing and tasting infusions, and observing how materials and bodies respond over time.
Rather than proposing a closed system, the metabolic herbarium operates as a practice of attention — a way of working with plants, images and the body as interconnected processes.
The pamphlet was developed for the workshop Metabolic Herbarium / Potions (Plants, Image and Ecologies of Care) presented at HerbFest Portugal, 2026.
This digital edition is shared freely as part of an ongoing commitment to open circulation and collective use.