Where is the line between propagation and eradication, celebrated specimen and nuisance? My recent work focuses on creating depictions of striking, almost alien, tropical plant leaves. Some are rare, some are mutations, some are unique variants, but all are coveted. Fragile clippings of these plants can sell for hundreds of dollars online or be exchanged between strangers in parking lots, like a kind of botanical contraband. The desirable qualities of these plants, whatever they may be, ensure their survival in a world where biodiversity is collapsing. This commodification, however unnatural, grants them a peculiar form of protection as we wade through a slow-motion extinction event. Meanwhile, dandelions, tenacious and beneficial, are dismissed as pests and swiftly targeted by weed whackers and herbicides.

This piece includes four leaves that can be removed and rearranged at will, echoing the language of specimen collection and the participatory nature of citizen science and data-gathering apps. Rare tropical varietals coexist with humble dandelion leaves, hinting at an equivalence and questioning our often arbitrary classifications of worth. This work explores how human preferences establish hierarchies within the natural world, where beauty, rarity, and even strangeness dictate a species’ survival. I invite viewers to examine these judgments and consider what might be lost in a world governed by selective preservation.

Though I’m drawn to titanium for its vivid colors, I also reflect on the enduring quality of this material. Am I inadvertently creating relics that might allow a future civilization to interpret our values? These titanium leaves will likely outlast the real tropical plants they depict. But for the resilient yellow flower, I remain far more hopeful. When the fallout settles from the next world war, the survivors will be cockroaches, Twinkies, and dandelions.

Mallory Weston is an artist living and working in Philadelphia, PA. Her work involves a marriage of traditional jewelry techniques and textile techniques, and she creates large-scale wearable pieces that allow metal to move with the fluidity of fabric. Mallory currently works as an Associate Professor of Metals/Jewelry/CAD-CAM at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia. She received her MFA in Jewelry + Metalsmithing from the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 2013.

Mallory’s work has been featured in the solo exhibitions Nodes at Sienna Patti Contemporary in Massachusetts and Knock Off at Platina Galerie in Stockholm, Sweden. Her work has also appeared in notable group exhibitions such as Objects: USA at R & Company in New York City and 45 Stories at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the CODA Museum and Design Museum Den Bosch in the Netherlands and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Museum of Arts and Design in the United States.