Sarah Schechter Showcases Research at Visualizing Knowledge Exhibition

2017 May 22

Sarah Schechter was one of several students to present a project at Wesleyan's first student visual knowledge and data visualization exhibition on May 12. Students were asked to showcase how they conveyed or established information in a mainly non-verbal form.

Schechter's project was titled, "The Mandrake." It is a painting examines the magical and medicinal uses of mandrakes, one of the most frequently mentioned plants in folklore, preserved in literature from the Mediterranean basin from antiquity to the modern era. When pulled from the ground, the mandrake’s forked root is believed to resemble the human form and utter a shriek that killed or drove mad anyone who heard it. Once pulled, the mandrake has been used as an aphrodisiac, purgative and narcotic. “My painting depicts the anthropomorphic mandrake root residing in a medieval manuscript,” she explained. “The sparkly canvas suggest the plant’s supposed magical properties.”