M - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Gregory Pryor Dryandra cryptophala, 2002 � Gregory Pryor fire in the south west of Western Australia, opened up to release it’s seed. As scientifically flimsy as my observations were, it did, nonetheless prompt what was eventually to become Black Solander. This Banksia specimen seemed to continue it’s fight for survival, despite being cut from it’s host plant, squashed and dried between paper, transported to the other side of the world, dipped in poison, taped down and housed in darkness, before surviving the devastating consequences of a world war. This was an example of inexplicable growth and survival from within a crypt. By now, I realized that my paltry 200 drawings could not encompass what I had in mind. I wanted to somehow present the immense floral diversity and intensity of Western Australia and simultaneously sound an alarm about its threatened status. Ironically, I also realized that the moment the first specimens arrived back in Europe from the early voyages of exploration to terra australis, was also the moment when the decimation of the diversity that the Linnaean binomial system was set up to classify, really began. I wanted to build a receptacle that housed these seemingly contradictory aims. My plans matured subliminally when I returned to Perth and it was only when my car drove me to the herbarium that they announced themselves. I left the fire 94 Gregory Pryor Banksia lemanniana Meisn. 2006 � Gregory Pryor extinguisher, walked back to reception and asked, “Who should I talk to if I want to do a drawing of every species of flowering plant in Western Australia?” Botanical illustrators conventionally paint the flower in an idealized form – in good health, clear light and often in every stage of its life cycle. I wanted to make a work from the discards of such botanical illustration. Herbariums shut out light, repel pollinating insects and flatten form, making desiccated plants behave like printed text. These plants have been extinguished from the biomass of the world, given a Latin name and been refashioned as books. Daniel Solander, a pupil of Linnaeus, designed a box to store his dried specimens in when he traveled on The Endeavour to Australia in the late eighteenth century. A similar box is still in use in many museums today and now bears his name – the Solander box. Operating like a portable herbarium, this lightproof container was just the type of receptacle I needed, except it had to accommodate 10,500 specimens. The Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts offered me a ‘box’ big enough to complete the task. To convey this absence of light and the increasingly rapid waning of the flora in these uncertain times, I decided to work with black ink on ‘black’ paper. I painted each plant on low grade sugar paper, because of it’s fugitive dyes so that during the course of making the work, the paper gradually lost its colour in varying degrees. Considering that the large scale collecting of Australian plants really gathered momentum at the start of Queen Victoria’s reign, I also felt my mausoleum
Gregory Pryor Top Image: Black Solander (detail - pimelea) ink, graphite and spirit based ink on sugar paper, 2005, Bottom Image: Page from Herbarium Vivum, Joanne Baptista Flysser, (1696) Slovenian Natural History Museum, 2004 � Gregory Pryor 95
Page 1 and 2:
Antennae Issue 10 - Summer 2009 ISS
Page 3 and 4:
T his issue of Antennae is fully de
Page 5 and 6:
‘Y ou don’t need a Ph.D. in lin
Page 7 and 8:
Simon Starling Kakteenhaus, 2002, V
Page 9 and 10:
BEYOND CLASSIC FIELD BIOLOGY: BATRA
Page 11 and 12:
Brandon Ballengée DFA 83, Karkinos
Page 13 and 14:
empathy in viewers. The intention i
Page 15 and 16:
Brandon Ballengée The Ever Changin
Page 17 and 18:
investigations; for example, explor
Page 19 and 20:
F ood production, energy consumptio
Page 21 and 22:
W hat is a Translocal Curator? We u
Page 23 and 24:
The feminist challenge to patriarch
Page 25 and 26:
O ver the last several decades, the
Page 27 and 28:
Julian Montague The Stray Shopping
Page 29 and 30:
Julian Montague The Stray Shopping
Page 31 and 32:
L ondon Fieldworks’ latest projec
Page 33 and 34:
London Fieldworks Stalin Animal Sho
Page 35 and 36:
and violence; keeping urban reality
Page 37 and 38:
E ndangered Species began as a resp
Page 39 and 40:
Todd Gilens Top images: Waiting at
Page 41 and 42:
Todd Gilens Foldable Pelican Bus
Page 43 and 44: MAINTAINING A GREEN NEWS AGENDA Thi
Page 45 and 46: coverage shaped in this way appeare
Page 47 and 48: CAPE FAREWELL: THE ULTIMATE JOURNEY
Page 49 and 50: David Hinton Director David Hinton
Page 51 and 52: Nathan Gallagher Ryuichi Sakamoto o
Page 53 and 54: Patrick Huse Bølgende landskap, wa
Page 55 and 56: Which brings me back to what origin
Page 57 and 58: nature. The affirmation is one that
Page 59 and 60: Max Eastley Max Eastley recording s
Page 61 and 62: and leave land behind. This region
Page 63 and 64: Max Eastley Exposición CAPE FAREWE
Page 65 and 66: I t can be argued that culturally a
Page 67 and 68: Ana Mendieta Untitled, from the ser
Page 69 and 70: Ackroyd & Harvey FlyTower 2007, Nat
Page 71 and 72: Ackroyd & Harvey Green brick, green
Page 73 and 74: Ken Yonetani The Dead Sea, 2008, ce
Page 75 and 76: Mark Wilson and Bryndís Snæbjörn
Page 77 and 78: Georgina Reid For the Baby, In Ligh
Page 79 and 80: Art Orienté Objet have been creati
Page 81 and 82: Art Orienté Objet Bwiti Turning, 2
Page 83 and 84: and his environment emerges from th
Page 85 and 86: Art Orienté Objet The Happy Hen, 2
Page 87 and 88: M INE is a documentary film by Gera
Page 89 and 90: Geralyn Pezanoski Mine: Taken By Ka
Page 91 and 92: 91 MAUSOLEUM The extraordinary bota
Page 93: Gregory Pryor Herbarium, Naturhisto
Page 97: Brandon Ballengée DFA 2, Héphaist
show all

M - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?