Joachim Koester’s series “From the Secret Garden of Sleep” explores the merging worlds of cannabis’ aesthetics and hybridisation throughout recent history.⁠ ⁠ The works take their visual starting point from a new type of imagery which emerged in the mid 1970s in counterculture magazines such as “High Times”. Resin-dripping cannabis plants would appear as centrefolds, modelled on the photographic styles of "Playboy". This interest in the physicality of the plant happened at a time when more people in the United States were growing cannabis themselves. The formerly lush Mexican fields were in shambles and a huge market for domestically grown marijuana had opened.⁠ ⁠ This came to a halt in 1982 when the Reagan administration set out to crush the domestic marijuana industry. Reagan saw home-grown marijuana as an important symbol of counter-culture, and as such it had to be eradicated. Domestic production moved indoors and, ironically, a plant of wonder materialised. Gone were the days of low-yield plants that sometimes grew to be as tall as five meters. Instead a muscular dwarf emerged, only knee-high, with buds the size of fists and a concentration of psychoactive compound significantly higher than before.⁠ ⁠ #joachimkoester #fromthesecretgardenofsleep #nicolaiwallner