FREDERIKA ADAM
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ABOUT THE PROJECT "PLANT INTELLIGENCE"
In April 2024, the Venice Biennale issued for the first time an Open Call for participants for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition. In response, Frederika Adam applied as an individual project on Plant Intelligence as her contribution to the Exhibition.
In January 2025, she was invited to display her "neurobotanical" photographs along with information about recent research into plant intelligence, neurobotany, and climate change.
The following text was produced for the curatorial team about the project and her contribution to this year's 19th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia: IntelliGENS. Natural. Synthetic. Collective. curated by Carlo Ratti.
“Plant Intelligence”
Frederika Adam
“Plant Intelligence” is a project conceived by Frederika Adam who is an international artist and photographer based in Northern California, London and Grenada, West Indies.
Adam’s photography captures light, form, color and texture abstracted to reveal something exceptional in the everyday environment. The most recent botanical images bring together the visual searching with the scientific understanding of what we are seeing.
These stunning neurobotanical images demonstrate “that the creative and technical mind are far from mutually exclusive and capable of producing extraordinary results.”[1]
Neurobotanical research has quickly developed into an exciting field of study notably in relating plant intelligence, physiology and communities to human adaptation and climate change. For the visual artist, studying plants changes how one sees the world; and the more we know how plants exist, survive and adapt to their changing environment the best chance humans have for surviving climate change.
“Plant Intelligence” was conceived as a dialogue between the eye of the artist and the research of the scientist inspired by the original Orto Botanici – Botanical Gardens – of Padua (1545), Pisa (1543) and Florence (1545) where plants have been collected and studied for centuries. Adam then expanded her inquiries to compare more recent university Botanical Gardens in California as in the image “Cactus (Opuntia rufida)”, Arizona Garden, Stanford University (1880-83).
The addition of tropical plants from Grenada, West Indies, brings the Orti project full circle with these exotic plants providing a global context for Adam’s further inquiries into the history of plant migration, botanical gardens and colonialism, and the contemporary landscape of international exchange and scientific research.
[1] Professor Dennis Geronimus on Maria Sybilla Merian in “By Herself: Women Artists in Early Modern Europe”, Spring 2025, New York University, New York.
Thank you to the "Plant Intelligence" Collaborative Team:
Katherine Ara
John Criswick
Jenny Elkus
Dennis Geronimus
Rachel Heslop
Asher Mains
Nan McElroy
Johanna McKeon
Lorelei Ormrod
Alessandro Tosi
Research Thank you to:
Stefano Mancuso
Zoe Schlanger
Thank you to the Supporters:
Judith and Timothy Adam
Nick Browne
Susan Mains
In January 2025, she was invited to display her "neurobotanical" photographs along with information about recent research into plant intelligence, neurobotany, and climate change.
The following text was produced for the curatorial team about the project and her contribution to this year's 19th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia: IntelliGENS. Natural. Synthetic. Collective. curated by Carlo Ratti.
“Plant Intelligence”
Frederika Adam
“Plant Intelligence” is a project conceived by Frederika Adam who is an international artist and photographer based in Northern California, London and Grenada, West Indies.
Adam’s photography captures light, form, color and texture abstracted to reveal something exceptional in the everyday environment. The most recent botanical images bring together the visual searching with the scientific understanding of what we are seeing.
These stunning neurobotanical images demonstrate “that the creative and technical mind are far from mutually exclusive and capable of producing extraordinary results.”[1]
Neurobotanical research has quickly developed into an exciting field of study notably in relating plant intelligence, physiology and communities to human adaptation and climate change. For the visual artist, studying plants changes how one sees the world; and the more we know how plants exist, survive and adapt to their changing environment the best chance humans have for surviving climate change.
“Plant Intelligence” was conceived as a dialogue between the eye of the artist and the research of the scientist inspired by the original Orto Botanici – Botanical Gardens – of Padua (1545), Pisa (1543) and Florence (1545) where plants have been collected and studied for centuries. Adam then expanded her inquiries to compare more recent university Botanical Gardens in California as in the image “Cactus (Opuntia rufida)”, Arizona Garden, Stanford University (1880-83).
The addition of tropical plants from Grenada, West Indies, brings the Orti project full circle with these exotic plants providing a global context for Adam’s further inquiries into the history of plant migration, botanical gardens and colonialism, and the contemporary landscape of international exchange and scientific research.
[1] Professor Dennis Geronimus on Maria Sybilla Merian in “By Herself: Women Artists in Early Modern Europe”, Spring 2025, New York University, New York.
Thank you to the "Plant Intelligence" Collaborative Team:
Katherine Ara
John Criswick
Jenny Elkus
Dennis Geronimus
Rachel Heslop
Asher Mains
Nan McElroy
Johanna McKeon
Lorelei Ormrod
Alessandro Tosi
Research Thank you to:
Stefano Mancuso
Zoe Schlanger
Thank you to the Supporters:
Judith and Timothy Adam
Nick Browne
Susan Mains
