Factory

The Botanical Factory is part of a larger body of work The Botanist, in which the artist uses cultural and historical narratives of the breadfruit tree to investigate issues of transplantation, cultural hybridization, and the historical relationship between material, invention, trade, and migration. His work, made with breadfruit leaves, recalls early botanical prints, Chinese ink paintings, Polynesian tapa cloths, colorful owers, and botanical textiles, all part of his cultural métissage, growing up Hakka Chinese on the island of Tahiti, in French Polynesia. During the Made by... Feito por brasileiros – Creative Invasion exhibition, Lee presented The Botanical Factory, a live installation in which the public was invited to print breadfruit leaves from silicone moulds made from the tree of his childhood, in Tahiti. The installation consisted of a large workshop table on which colorful fabrics were laid and imprinted with the participation of the public and numerous school children from São Paulo. During the workshop process, the artist told visitors about the Tahitian legend of Rua-ta’ata, who sacri ced himself and transformed his body into a breadfruit tree to feed his starving wife and children. At the end of the workshop encounter, the textiles were hung up to dry on clothespins stretched along the ceiling of the installation. Breadfruit is an essential element in Polynesian culture and diet. Joseph Banks, the botanist onboard James Cook’s first Voyage of Discovery, recognized its great nutritional value and transplanted it to the Caribbean, where the Bristish colons used it to feed slaves in the plantations. Today, it is considered a superfood with the potential to eradicate world hunger. Taken as a whole, The Botanical Factory is a project about narrative processes, the perpetuation of cultural heritage, and the malleability of visual signs in an ever-changing world. The breadfruit as symbol of sustenance for the Polynesians becomes a ma er for colonial trade for the British, and in the context of Brazil, a visual parabole for transplantation and métissage. In this project, the artist e effectively constructed a space to encounter and reenact traditional communal activities, storytelling mecanisms, and exchange of cultural processes with the Brazilian public.