The Self Defense Project
- ArtBomb
- Aug 6
- 1 min read
Updated: Aug 11
Karolina Żyniewicz
ArtBomb'25 | 11am-3pm | Sat 16 & Sun 17 August
Free • limited spaces • age 16+
Join us for a 2-day foraging and embroidery workshop exploring how Doncaster’s toxic plants can be used and misused by humans.
To book your place or for more details, please email: info@artbombuk.com
The inspiration for the Self Defense project is Noah Whiteman’s book Most Delicious Poison: The Story of Nature’s Toxins―From Spices to Vices, which shows how many organisms are capable of developing defensive strategies that we humans can use as poisonous safeguards.
I believe that in the current atmosphere of global threat and war, it is worth initiating a discussion about defence practices through the use of knowledge about nature. This kind of knowledge is not exempt from ethical considerations—like any other knowledge, it requires responsibility and caution. As Paracelsus said, only the dose makes the poison.
In the Self Defense project, I’m interested in how plants considered poisonous use their toxins in their life cycles (in interspecies relationships), and how these toxins can be used—or misused—by humans. My research will focus on doses, thresholds, and limitations of using certain plant-derived substances, beyond which they become dangerous—not just one of the components of a plant, but a potential tool that can harm or take away health or life.
