Edible Invasives
This interactive land art installation utilized local “invasive” Russian Olive and squirrel species. I hunted the squirrels and harvested both, cooking them into tea, jam, jerky and broth for participants to taste.
Created by invitation from Axle Contemporary for “Wilderness Acts” at Leonora Curtin Wilderness Preserve in Santa Fe, NM
The exhibit was named one of 2016’s Top 10 art exhibitions in New Mexico by Art Ltd Magazine.
By offering these “invasive” species as previously undervalued flavors and sustenance, we reconsidered who determines who belongs where and what species are useful or valuable.
On the menu: Squirrel broth, squirrel jerky, Russian Olive jam and Russian Olive tea.
Human form of dining table and place settings in unlikely “natural” setting of wildlife preserve.
Squirrel station
Squirrel meat prepped for drying into jerky.
Russian Olive fruit tasting station.
Tasting Russian Olive jam, sipping squirrel broth, sipping Russian Olive tea.
Russian Olive fruit and leaves.
A feast of invasives set under a canopy of Russian Olive trees.