A Botanist’s Dilemma: The Defiant Nature of the Banana Plant examines the banana plant as a metaphor for migration, displacement, and adaptation in the Filipino Diaspora. Borrowing its title from a 1938 Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society describing the difficulty of collecting a massive false banana leaf in Uganda, the thesis celebrates the plant’s refusal to be easily contained or extracted. Through installations at Cornell Botanic Gardens and Tjaden Gallery, the movement of banana plants within the botanical garden mirrors my own diasporic experience living between the Philippines and the United States.

Working across painting, ceramics, papermaking, and installation, I investigate the colonial histories embedded in botanical gardens, plant classification, and material extraction. Centering on abaca (Musa textilis), a Philippine banana species historically exploited during American imperial expansion, the work repositions the banana plant as a living subject rather than a commodity. Guided by the Filipino concepts of tabi-tabi po, an ethics of respect toward more-than-human beings, and bahala na, a trust in uncertainty and adaptation, my practice embraces the behaviors and tendencies of clay, fiber, and pigment. Through material collaboration and abstraction, the thesis explores care, belonging, and coexistence between human and plant life.