Couch Grass: Ethics of the Rhizome

Abstract

This essay takes the artist Bianca Hester’s invitation to engage with the exhibition, please leave these windows open overnight to enable the fans to draw in cool air during the early hours of the morning, as an opportunity to investigate an ethical call, a call that makes a demand andrequires a response from those who accept this invitation. Through addressing the dynamics produced by and through this invitation, the essay asks what is expected of a participant in order that they may “leave the windows open” and enable new configurations and relationalities to emerge. It directs our questioning to how we might prepare ourselves to be open to such a challenge and sets out to sketch a “user’s..