In 1823 Philipp Franz von Siebold sailed under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to Japan, where he used his role as resident doctor and scientist at the Dejima trading post to amass a vast botanical collection. Among the species von Siebold introduced to Europe was Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica). Today considered a “non native invasive species” in places like the United Kingdom, the plant is now treated as a scourge. Alaa Abu Asad meditatively traces the violent, xenophobic speech used to describe the plant and its parallels in the language used to describe human migrants.
On a planet where ultimately very little is truly native, Abu Asad questions which plant species become accepted as the rightful inhabitants of nation states over time and which are forever relegated to the foreign. Tulips, though first imported to Holland from the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century, are today proudly claimed a national treasure. No such fate has met the Japanese knotweed. The plant remains pursued across countries and continents as every conceivable attempt is made to eradicate it.
Japanese knotweed survives where other species cannot. Its nonhierarchical root system enables it to thrive in industrial wastelands, erupt through concrete, and even disrupt electrical lines. And yet little thought is given to the underlying causes aiding this plant to flourish, from pollution to reduced frost brought on by climate change. The plant is blamed for the wrongdoings of others in the name of expediency and self-preservation. For Abu Asad, these plants reveal to us the human condition. Even as many try to expunge it from the earth, Japanese knotweed’s resilience continues to insist on presence.

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Amanda Sarroff for Van Eyck Academy open studios, 2020