Plants in Resin.

My practice focuses predominantly on botanics and the perceived importance of aesthetics within modern western society. The work has been moulded by my focal research question surrounding the connections between aesthetics within museum and gallery space. What is considered a museum piece and how this differs to a gallery piece? And how does aesthetics influence the decision? Exploring the mediums of photography and fine art, I have created a range of work that features plants that are considered as weeds, preserving them within resin. Questioning what has aesthetical value by using something that is overlooked and thrown away, to then place up on a pedestal.

Thomas writes “unless people [...] are persuaded that these works or specimens are significant [...] there can be no constituency of supporters whose positive interest will underpin costs” (Thomas, 2016:66). This motivated me to question the settings of art pieces and triggered the interest in the gallery setting. Throughout both my BA degree and my MA I was interested in collections of plants, in particular the Kew Gardens Database was a source of inspiration.

My last project within my MA is where my concepts and ideas became more cohesive and the work I was creating connected visually and conceptually.

This project in particular Plants in resin, is a piece of work that consists of over 30 resin pieces with the dimensions of 14x23x0.7 cm. Each piece contains a plant that is considered a weed, and that has been collected from around my local area, chosen for their undesirability and ability to be overlooked every day.

The volume of these pieces was and is still important, there needed to be enough of a range in plant samples and the work needed to still be impactful despite each individual component being small. With this in mind when I displayed the 33 pieces, they were enclosed in a grey box which was painted onto the wall. This therefore created a frame for the work, allowing the viewers eyes to drawn onto the piece rather than getting lost of the mass of white.

References:

Thomas, N. (2016). The return of curiosity. London: Reaktion Books.