Kudzu Engulfs Everything in Its Path in Zac Henderson’s ‘Palimpsest’

After 13 years on the road, Zac Henderson (previously) traded in the van he and his wife lived in full-time to return to the South and be nearer to family. “Despite the many recognizable faces and places, my relationship to them had changed,” he says. “As is everyone who leaves home and then returns, I was a different person. The town changed, too, having grown in size with a continuously re-made skyline and a ballooning population we felt increasingly alienated from.”

In the Southeastern U.S., an unmissable feature along highways and wooded areas is kudzu. The invasive species was imported to North America in 1876, when it was included in the Japan pavilion of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Originally promoted as an ornamental, climbing garden plant, kudzu was later used as an agent to stop erosion on farms and along graded roadways. But it also found the hot, humid conditions ideal, and its aggressive invasiveness is apparent in the way it can completely engulf telephone poles, trees, and other plants.

a surreal photograph of kudzu vines rendered in a pinkish-orange hue

“Capable of growing up to a foot per day, kudzu is known for its stranglehold on untouched structures,” Henderson says. The plant inspires a recent body of work titled Palimpsest, drawn from the idea of writing material that has been altered or layered with new writing but still contains fragments of original content. He adds:

Buildings and vehicles, if left for too long, may be overtaken and reduced to little more than undulations underneath a suffocating quilt of leaves. Even as a child, I found the structures made by its overgrowth interesting. They appeared like non-threatening monsters, slowly moving across the landscape searching for the next structure to patiently devour alongside the highway.

For Henderson, kudzu represents a nostalgic and instantly distinguishable feature of the region while also hinting at the uncontrollability of nature and time and its influence on the world around us. Photographed in near-infrared, the bright orange-ish leaves are a semblance of something familiar while being boldly surreal and strange.

Find more on the artist’s website, Instagram, and Behance.

a surreal photograph of kudzu vines surrounding a tree trunk, rendered in a pinkish-orange hue

a surreal photograph of kudzu vines and a guardrail rendered in a pinkish-orange hue

a photograph of kudzu leaves rendered in a pinkish-orange hue

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