Fatal Flora

RENAISSANCE OF THE EARTH

The Renaissance of the Earth revolutionizes what it means to engage the early modern past with questions about our environmental future. Through a range of cross-disciplinary collaborative models, it puts students, artists, and scholars at the center of an interdisciplinary research mandate with the goal of discovering diverse avenues for creating sustainable and equitable life.

Learn more about the project: www.renaissanceoftheearth.com

KINNEY CENTER FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY RENAISSANCE STUDIES

FATAL FLORA:

P O I S O N O U S R E V E N G E N A R R A T I V E S

by Susan Montgomery

FALL 2024

A RENAISSANCE OF THE EARTH EXHIBIT

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

A MATTER OF DOSE

Navigating the line between medicine and poison has always been tricky. Historically, women have transformed household botanicals into vital remedies and fatal toxics to shape the fate of their own lives.

Fatal Flora: Poisonous Revenge Narratives asks how, in the hands of knowledgeable women, the natural world can be transformed from medicinal to murderous in a pinch, dash, or splash of ingredients.

Artist in Residence, Susan Montgomery, blends history, memory, and the imagination on her canvases to recall real and mythical women who change their lives by harnessing the powers of the natural world.

The distinction between healing and harming is a matter of dose. As the primary physicians and pharmacists of their households in the early modern period, women possessed the plant knowledge that separated damage from remedy, and on occasion, accident from design.

ABOUT THE ARTIST Susan Montgomery teaches drawing in the Smith College Department of Art. She is a recipient of the Blanch E. Coleman Award, Mellon Foundation Grant, and a Sustainable Artist Foundation Grant. She has exhibited at venues including the Fuller Art and Craft Museum, Lyman Museum of Springfield History at the Springfield Quadrangle Museums, Five College Women’s Resource Center at Mount Holyoke College, Historic Northampton Museum, A.P.E. Ltd. Gallery and the Trustman Gallery at Simmons University.

Learn more about her work: www.susanmontgomeryart.com

Belladonna / “Deadly Nightshade”: This toxic perennial plant has long been used in medicines and poisons. In the 17th century, it was also used in cosmetics to reduce redness and swelling.

Hemlock: Although all of its parts are poisonous, the roots and seeds of hemlock are more toxic than the leaves. Sometimes confused for Queen Anne’s Lace, this flowering plant was used medicinally as a sedative or to relieve joint pain.

Opium Poppy: Used in medicines for pain relief and to induce sleep, the toxins found in this plant are extremely poisonous and can cause convulsions, asphyxiation, and death.

Thornapple / “Devil’s Trumpet”: Medicinally, thornapple can reduce inflammations of all kinds. However, it is highly poisonous, as well as psychoactive. It can cause respiratory issues, delirium, psychosis, and death if taken internally.

Wolfsbane / “Queen of Poisons”: Used medicinally as a sedative and fever reducer, a very small amount of wolfsbane can cause respiratory paralysis and even heart failure.

RENAISSANCE OF THE EARTH

The Renaissance of the Earth revolutionizes what it means to engage the early modern past with questions about our environmental future. Through a range of cross-disciplinary collaborative models, it puts students, artists, and scholars at the center of an interdisciplinary research mandate with the goal of discovering diverse avenues for creating sustainable and equitable life.

Learn more about the project: www.renaissanceoftheearth.com

KINNEY CENTER FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY RENAISSANCE STUDIES

FATAL FLORA:

P O I S O N O U S R E V E N G E N A R R A T I V E S

by Susan Montgomery

FALL 2024

A RENAISSANCE OF THE EARTH EXHIBIT