Thomas Demand Nursery, 2020

In the pink-lit interior of Nursery small plants in identical boxes are neatly arranged on long tables, their growth controlled by a network of pipes, cables and overhanging lights. Nursery is a recreation of a hydroponic laboratory situated on the science campus of Niagara College in Ontario, which offers what may be the world’s first degree in commercial cannabis production. Thomas Demand says, “the fact that [the Cannabis laboratory] is almost entirely automated shows that there is a complete lack of sentimentality about the project. I find that wonderful somehow.”