WATER LILY INVASION

2013 - 2020

Tamiko Thiel

*1957 in the USA

As global water levels and temperatures rise, plants and animals are mutating to adapt. Strange new creatures are arising at the interstices between plant and animal, questioning and transgressing the boundaries of what is considered to be reactive flora or active fauna. Water lilies are an invasive species that has evidently mutated to be able to travel long distances. The species appears to feed off the electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobile devices, enabling them to grow. In the process, it engulfs every mobile device on which it is displayed. Until now, viewers have reported feeling no effects other than a temporary fibrillation. However, scientists fear that future mutations could cross the boundaries to carnivorous life forms.

Tamiko Thiel participated in the group exhibition Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 2018, and undertook an augmented reality intervention within the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. For more information on Tamiko Thiel, visit http://tamikothiel.com.