Making a tiara

Watch Jan Yager use plants to create the “Tiara of Useful Knowledge.” Yager was challenged by historical examples of tiaras that are designed with individual pieces of jewelry that can be disassembled from the circlet and worn individually. Her tiara portrays several plant species, each one chosen for its symbolic reference to the disruption and possible restoration of nature’s balance: a potato leaf recalls the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-50; switchgrass suggests a source of cheap, renewable fuel; and the tobacco leaf warns of the addictive qualities of plants and the exploitative economies that develop to promote them. Bonus video from the LANDSCAPE episode.