Hairy cactus

Hertford, UK, and Fresh Art 2002 in London. She is researching
interactive art at Goldsmith's College London, and her next art project - c-lab - in collaboration with Howard Boland will begin online. She grew up in South Africa and lives in London.

Why a cactus with human hair?

Cactuses are not known for their beauty, and they are seen as fleshy,
meaty and monolithic. I'm interested in the anti-sexuality that these
phallic stems with extruding spines signify. Hair is a sign of
reproduction, a sign of our bodies changing, becoming or being sexual.
So the cactus with hair becomes a sexual symbol. I think this perversion resonates with the cultural climate surrounding genetic engineering: transgenics is seen as anti-sexual, asexual, because it directly interferes with the natural reproductive process. The Cactus Project brings that perversion into focus and reverses it. The cactus with its hairs coming out is showing all the desires, all the signs of sexuality.It doesn't want to be trapped. It wants to be released. The desire is to enter the world as a species from a mythical landscape. I'm interested in this desire, this wanting to come out. (...)"