Journal of Therolinguistics at Descanso Gardens
- Kristine Schomaker
- 28 minutes ago
- 4 min read
By A. Laura Brody
What is the language of bat senses and beaver teethmarks? How does water communicate to soil and roots, and how do we translate the paths left by burrowing insects or the markings of trees? These are questions asked by the Journal of Therolinguistics exhibition at Descanso Gardens' Boddy House, on view now until July 5, 2026. Oscar Salguero has curated a fascinating exploration of the expressive worlds of plants and animals brought to life by international artists Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė, Alice Bucknell, Audax M. Gawler and Pri Bertucci, Lucio Arese, Marianne Hoffmeister Castro, Nicole Brugger, and Paige Emery.
Therolinguistics is a term invented by the late writer and philosopher Ursula K. Le Guin. Technically speaking, it refers to the language of animals. However, as she also wrote, we may not think of plants as having a language simply because we cannot understand their modes of communication. Our human senses may be too dull, too fast moving, or too slow to comprehend the multiple voices spoken around us by trees, flowers, water, stones, and soil. These elements communicate with each other, even if we do not have the capacity to translate.
Descanso Gardens is an ideal place to ponder these notions, and the wildly different approaches to the topic are lyrical and thought-provoking. The expansive show covers most of the Boddy House with a narrative flow linked with color-coded didactics and immersive soundscapes. Distinctive typography designed by Studio Darius Ou on the didactics provides a strong, cohesive element that ties the disparate artistic elements together.
Each area has its own department. By the front entrance, the orange Department of Tecto holds Chilean artist Marianne Hoffmeister Castro's Study of Beaverness. She interprets the toothmarks on beaver-gnawed logs through images on video screens of orange-dipped hands holding a chewed log and twigs. Orange signs and display tables hold artfully arranged chips of wood and graphic interpretations of the gnawed patterns on the log, left for viewers to decipher.
The blue Department of Phono is home to Italian artist Lucio Arese's interpretations of birdsong and Plantae, the vegetal collective of US artist Paige Emery. Emery's installation of arcs, tree stumps, and soil and roots along with blue-painted patterns in natural pigments explores water as a messenger and how it might communicate to the plants. The ambient music is a composition for the plants that echoes the vibrations of water, soil, roots, air, and bacteria. Arese shares video of European songbirds in their habitats and recordings of their songs superimposed with constellations made by charting their sound paths.
In the library is the green Department of Glyph, where Swiss artist Nicole Brugger created marks based on the sinuous traces left by deadwood beetles eating through wood. These curving, erratic lines are placed on light green cards on the library shelves like messages for viewers to decipher, alongside enlarged images of the beetles and the wood they have eaten paths into. Towards the window is the work of Audax M. Gawler of Australia and Pri Bertucci of Brazil. These researchers and artists study Jagube vines and share glyphs made from cross-cutting the vines and charting the paths of their growth through changing climate and seasons. The glyphs are then broken down into distinct symbols that are printed on glass and hang in the windows like sun catchers, alongside banners of "tree tongue" poetry. On the tables in the room's center, visitors create their own arboreal poetry on blank cards using glyph stamps, ink pads, markers, and a dictionary of tree tongue phrases.
In the purple Department of Xeno is Alice Bucknell from the United States and United Kingdom, and her video exploration of bat and datura flower pollination imagined as video games. Participants use game controllers to navigate nocturnal landscapes through these animal and floral senses. During my visit, two young visitors played these games intently, guiding each other when they lost track of the pollination goals. Next door in the carmine Department of Chrono is Lithuanian investigator Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė and her collaborators, the lichen Cladonia, Parmelina, and Ramelina. This black-lit room is filled with day-glo models of lichen formations and video screens with images of highly magnified, creature-like technicolor lichens.
While the exhibition requires a willingness to immerse ourselves in its poetry, it is well worth the time to commune with these artworks, ponder therolinguistics as a notion, and to listen to the flora and fauna of Descanso along the way. The plants, animals, soil, and water have something to say to us humans if we are willing to listen.
Journal of Therolinguistics is on view at the Boddy House, Descanso Gardens March 21–July 5, 2026, 10am–4pm daily Entry to the Boddy House is included with general admission or membership. 1418 Descanso Drive, La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011 descansogardens.org | (818) 949-4200
Curator: Oscar Salguero @softcoreny, founder of @interspecieslaibrary Typography: Studio Darius Ou @darius_ou Artists: Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė @aiste_ambrazeviciute | Lucio Arese @lucioarese | Pri Bertucci @pribertucci_o_profeta_queer | Nicole Brugger @nclbrggr | Alice Bucknell @alicebucknell | Marianne Hoffmeister Castro @marianne.hoffmeister | Paige Emery @paigeemery_ | Audax M. Gawler @audax__audax
A. Laura Brody (she/her) sculpts for the human body and its vehicles. She founded Opulent Mobility, a series of exhibits that re-imagine disability as opulent and powerful. She began as a costume designer and maker and now focuses on arts and curation. Her artwork has been shown at ACE/121 Gallery, Art Share LA, Arts Unbound, AVC Gallery, Brand Library and Art Center, Brea Gallery, Charles River Museum of Industry, Dora Stern Gallery, Ikouii Creative, Los Angeles Makery, Mike Curb Gallery, SUNY Potsdam, Thymele Arts, USC's Hoyt Gallery, Westbeth Center for the Arts, and the World of Wearable Art. Find her at @a.laurabrody and @opulentmobility, opulentmobility.com and dreamsbymachine.com.
