King of Weeds

Richard Selesnick, artist

born 1964

Nicholas Kahn, artist

born 1964

King of Weeds, 2013

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: inkjet print

Dimensions:
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 41 1/2 x 41 1/2 x 2 1/4 in
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): arch top 81.7 x 82 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 32 3/16 x 32 5/16 in
Weight (Weight): 23 lbs

Credit line: Museum purchase: R. Charles and Mary Margaret Clevenger Art Acquisition Fund

Accession number: 2014.0338

Not on display

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Big Botany: Conversations with the Plant World

King of Weeds forms part of the narrative of Kahn & Selesnick’s recent performance and installation series: Truppe Fledermaus & The Carnival at the End of the World. The King of Weeds is one of several iterations of the Green Man theme in this series. The Green Man is a leaf-covered figure with a long history in folkloric traditions that can be traced from late antiquity to the artistic traditions of Austria, the Balkans, Britain, and Germany, as depicted in the adjacent engraving by Sebald Beham. The artists commented that King of Weeds “can be viewed as a symbol of invasive species spread by climate change and human migration.” The work also asks us to contemplate what a weed is, and to whom, echoing Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous inquiry, “What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.”