Troika, Ghost Specimen (Hibiscadelphus wilderianus), 2026

2026

Medium

Hand anodized titanium

Dimensions

25 × 18 cm

Edition

Ed. of 5 + 2 AP

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-155967

In the series “Ghost Specimen,” Troika transforms plant forms into small 3D-printed metal sculptures. The project originated from an encounter with historical herbarium collections during a research period at the University of Cambridge, including specimens collected by Charles Darwin and other explorers. Some of these plants are now extinct; others come from countries whose names, borders, or political affiliations have changed since they were collected. Troika takes up this order of collecting, yet simultaneously reveals its gaps and the power structures inscribed within it. Herbariums point not only to botanical knowledge but also to historical forms of appropriation in which plants were separated from local knowledge systems and indigenous ecologies and transformed into transportable scientific data. For “Ghost Specimen,” an archived plant specimen is translated into a sculptural form using AI-assisted image interpretation and 3D modeling, and then 3D-printed in metal. The extinct plant thus appears as an object situated between a biological document, a machine-generated reconstruction, and a form of memory. The sculpture is installed with the flower facing the wall, revealing the reverse side that was missing from the original dataset. Where information was unavailable, the AI had to speculate. The flattened surface and the unresolved textures make this uncertainty visible. What emerges is not an exact replica, but a form born of prediction, supplementation, and algorithmic distortion. “Ghost Specimen” thus asks what happens when nature is perceived primarily through archives and machine systems—through technologies that classify, calculate, and generate missing images, while also perpetuating older forms of distance, appropriation, and distortion. "Hibiscadelphus wilderianus", the Maui hau kuahiwi, is a flowering plant once native to Maui, Hawaii, and now extinct. First documented in 1911 by botanist Gerrit Wilder in the lava fields of Maui, the species disappeared as the surrounding landscape was transformed into cattle ranches. Grazing animals stripped the bark from its trunk, invasive rats consumed its seeds, and by the 1930s the last known wild tree had died. The reference for Troikas work is the only member of its species ever recorded.