Helene Schmitz - ARENA
At the end of the nineteenth century the climbing plant kudzu from Japan was introduced in the United States.
The plant was initially popular because of its appearance and was used as ground cover. In the nineteen-thirties the plant was extensively deployed to counteract soil erosion in the states of Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi – kudzu flourishes in many soil types and conditions, and can grow up to thirty centimetres a day. It therefore didn’t take long for the once deemed beautiful and useful plant to be considered a plague. Kudzu covers everything in its path: trees, houses and abandoned cars. Helene Schmitz captured the kudzu in Georgia and Alabama in black and white photographs, which are a cross between documentation and art – beautiful and terrible at once.
