Faculty members and students at Ventura College shared their desires through canvas to actual still life in “One Book, One Campus IV” which showed from Oct. 2 – Nov. 4.

Ventura College’s New Media Gallery was full of pictures, most for sale, made from chalk, paint and oil on canvas. Set up in the middle of the room was 4-D sculptures as well as a real collection of potatoes all of which represented a form of desire to the content of the artist.

“This reminds me of the story of the forbidden fruit with Adam and Eve,” said Jessica Franklin, 19-year-old music major at Ventura College. “The art made me think about what’s desirably beautiful to me.”

The entire exhibit was inspired by Michael Pollan’s novel, “The Botany of Desire.”

Pollan’s website explains how in the book, he demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He shows how the four fundamental human desires – sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control, links together with the plants that satisfy them – the apple, the tulip, marijuana and the potato.

“My favorite was the sculpture of the man with his organs coming out,” said Jerome Washington, Associated Students of Ventura College treasurer, inquiring on artist Gary Rodriguez’s sculpture of a man lying on his side titled “Unknown.”

The art at Ventura College illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings.

“And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them,” said Pollan on his website. “So who is really domesticating whom?”

(Photos by Tonisha Franklin)

(Photos by Tonisha Franklin)