False Shamrock

Oxalis Triangularis


One of the plants was regulated by different levers.

At first glance the machine appeared to move by itself, radio- or solar-controlled, as if it followed an inscrutable pattern, like a living thing.

Only gradually, I realized that the movements were controllable by various levers, which initially seemed pointless and arbitrary placed at different places along the street, many of them not even nearby.

A choreography by chance arose.

Artificial Plants at the Bowery, Lower East Side, Manhattan.

Levers places along the street, many of them not even nearby.

Image material by Universal Audio via 96khz.

Different levers enabled the plant movements, a choreography by chance.

Original photo by Austin Craver via deviantart.

False Shamrock (Oxalis Triangularis), East River Bikeway and boardwalk.

Park Avenue at 56th street, Oxalis with full leaf extension.

Photonasty, a chemo-mechanical process, was imitated be networked mechanical controls.

False Shamrock, a popular non-native house plant, which bears large, cloverlike leaves with perfectly triangular leaflets.

Native to South America False Shamrock is a edible perennial  plant. It is a type of wood sorrel that is also grown as a houseplant.


The leaves contain oxalic acid and should not be eaten in large amounts since oxalic acid can bind up the body's supply of calcium leading to nutritional deficiency and is detrimental in high quantities.


False Shamrock shows a special behaviour: The triangular leaves spread out during the day and fold together at night. This movement is caused by changes in the osmotic potential of cells of the pulvinus at the base of the leaf, a chemo-mechanical process called photonasty.

Rooftop of the Seagram building.

Original photo by Ezra Stoller via artnet and historical, from the collection of Robert E. Jackson, photographer unknown via The Seattle Times.