Martin Roth “In November 2017 I collected a plant from the garden of a mass shooter”

yours mine & ours

This event has ended.

Topography
The property is part of a development that was built just a few years ago. To the west, a long stretched plateau rises up at the edges of which a steep slope merges into the slightly hilly plain in which the property lies. To the east, it is bounded by a ditch, possibly a riverbed, that only carries water at certain times. The landscape is rocky and rugged, with many incisions and ridges. The finger-like foothills of the plateau are largely cut off from the newly constructed streets and subdivision. Plant growth is only sporadic. The predominant color is the sandy to brownish, reddish color of the sedimentary rock.

Garden
The backyard’s bland appearance is striking. Obviously, little effort was put into backyard landscaping. Many plants, especially in the front area of the house, have a pointy, prickly shape. Prickly plants can have an off-putting and aggressive effect. The entire garden consists of coarse gravel and only some small bushes were planted seemingly at random. It is noticeable that unlike other backyards in the surrounding area, it lacks elements such as paths, green areas, and larger plants.

Martin Roth (b. 1977, Graz, Austria) lives and works in New York, NY. He received his MFA from Hunter College in 2011. Roth has exhibited widely internationally including Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, NY; The Artist’s Institute, New York, NY; Museum of Natural History, Graz, Austria; Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin, Germany; Louis B. James, New York, NY; CAPITAL, San Francisco, CA; Centro Arte Contemporaneo, Murcia, Spain; mumok, Vienna, Austria. Roth’s work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artnews, The Brooklyn Rail, Monopol Magazine, Hyperallergic, Creators Vice, Modern Painters, Artinfo, and Architectural Digest