HETEROPHYLLY
with COMPANY, PLACE
RIO KOBAYASHI
WEBB YATES
Heterophylly was the first intervention of the ”On the Shelf” series, which invited artists to create installations that sat in conversation with the pavilion. The title references the ability of plants to adapt their leaf shapes depending on the environment that they are found in. The sculptures were created using redwood trunks, logs of regenerating willow, stumps of Prunus and bamboo off-cuts. Intentionally tied to blocks of limestone from the Portland quarry’s graveyard, visitors were invited to observe the slow organic transformations within an urban setting. The influence of the weather incorporated itself into the installation and contributed to its form, through washing tannins out of the redwood and staining the limestone.
OFF THE SHELF, LONDON DESIGN FESTlVAL
(September, 2024)
(September, 2024)
SILENT ARCHIVE
curated by EMMA NICOLSON
alongside:
- AMANDA COBBETT, AMANDA THOMSON,
- ANNALEE DAVIS, HANNAH IMLACH, IŞIK GÜNER,
- JACQUI PESTELL, JANISE YNTEMA, KARINE POLWART,
- LAURIE CLARK, PIPPA MURPHY, SARAH ROBERT
- SHARON TINGEY, SHIRAZ BAYJOO,
- SONIA MEHRA CHAWLA & WENDY McMURDO
The access that one has, however, to the substantial Begonia living collection at RBGE also sheds light on the colonial past and present of the institution itself. By creating morphologically distorted configurations using bamboo and Begonia leaves, I invited the viewer to question which of these physical states are considered “ordinary” and assess the impact of human involvement within these interactions.
INVERLEITH HOUSE, ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS EDINBURGH
(February, 2024)
(February, 2024)
PEAR_ED
with HAYDEN MALAN
This shared enquiry into botany, biology and art centres on the guiding question: "What do plants really want?"
At once resisting and quoting traditions of flower arranging, the pair's botanical compositions become a medium for spending (more) time with organic matter and listening to the non-human sentient. The plants, shifting and changing over the course of the project, insist their autonomy - some wilt, others send out aerial roots, growth and decay persist. Together, they share a preoccupation with the sculptural potential of plants as both natural organisms and modular structures. Currently, the focus is on the identification of unusual plants found between Amsterdam and London, and GPS coordinates are provided to each unique location. The plants share common features and are effectively in conversation with one another. Scientific, cultural and indigenous knowledge is gathered about each plant. These are presented through a parallel Instagram page (@pear__ed) that tracks the conversation.
London | Cape Town | Amsterdam
SUMMER OPEN HOUSE
with SIMÃO ROMUALDO
LAROCHE POTTERY
OIHARA RESEARCH PROJECT
M:H
Back in May, a friend furiously hacked down long, spindly pieces of hedge bamboo (Phyllostachys sp.) from the fence in his back garden in Dalston and this encounter, followed by me taking the resented pieces home, reminded me of my love for bamboo. This bamboo, new in its growth, surprised me by how incredibly soft and easy to cut it was, since the pieces I had worked with in the past always required a saw. Bamboo is regularly assembled into scaffolding and carries countless builders up and across the outside of old buildings in Shanghai, where my parents grew up. This astounding strength of bamboo is the result of a natural composite structure, consisting of cellulose fibrils surrounded by a matrix of lignin and hemicellulose (Youssefian & Rahbar, 2015). In a space of three months, the same patch of Dalston bamboo had established its own strength and now required substantially more pressure to cut down.
Within the room, the dried leaves from a Cordyline sp. (which can be seen directly outside the window) start a conversation with bamboo on the sculptural potential of plants. In dialogue, the leaves hold their own impressive strength by securing the bamboo together with ease. There is also some tension.
Field notes #1: Growing bamboo is a slightly darker shade of green than the more established pieces, with newer nodes emerging with a brown tinge. The regions along the nodes that are found under the sheath have yet to develop their strength and bend like rubber when the sheath is removed.
Reference:
Youssefian, S., Rahbar, N. Molecular Origin of Strength and Stiffness in Bamboo Fibrils. Sci Rep 5, 11116 (2015).
SURO LAB, LONDON
(August, 2023)
(August, 2023)
WRIGHT + DOYLE
COLLECTION VI EXHIBITION
Created collaboratively with Wright + Doyle and drawing from Lucien Pelen’s self-portraits, where his body half-subsumed by nature, the installations were created to blur the boundaries between garment, wearer and environment.
With photography by Jonathan Arundel.
ENSO HOUSE, LONDON
(September, 2024)
(September, 2024)
PLANTS IN PARALLEL
curated by CYNTHIA FAN
images by WING CHENG
exhibiting artists
BILLY BARRACLOUGH, TIM COPSEY, NARELLE DORE,
EMI FUJISAWA, KATERINA KNIGHT, PEAR_ED,
GABRIELLE RHODES, SIMÃO ROMUALDO,
COLIN STEWART & JESSE NAVARRE VOS.
PLANTS IN PARALLEL drew inspiration from the contradictions within the etymology of the word 'plant'. As Rosetta S. Elkin explains in the essay ‘Plant Life: The Practice of Working Together’, ‘plant’ emerges from two Latin origins: planta, to sprout, and plantare, to fix in place. These two root words conjure up acts that appear to be at odds - through sprouting, we see a developmental process that occurs with growth and movement, while being fixed in place implies an intentional state of stasis.
This group exhibition delved into the duality held by the identity of plants and extended it to the observation of artistic practices that exist in conversation with the natural world. In working with nature, elements such as leaves; stones; soil; bodies of water and sunlight become a catalyst, a medium and a collaborator.
ENSO HOUSE, LONDON
(August, 2024)
(August, 2024)
DOCTORAL RESEARCH
Supervisors DR CATHERINE KIDNER
PROFESSOR ANDREW HUDSON
Institutions UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS EDINBURGH
(RBGE)
THE GENETICS OF LEAF SHAPE VARIATION IN BEGONIA
Begonia is one of the largest plant genera, with over 2 000 species, and displays an extraordinary range of leaf shapes across diverse environments along the tropics. As a genus, Begonia provides a unique system for studying the evolution of leaf form and allows insight into the genetic and environmental drivers of morphological diversity.
- The leaves of 154 Begonia species from RBGE’s living collection were plotted against the working phylogeny.
- A mormophetric analysis of leaf outlines was conducted using elliptical Fourier analysis to quantify shape.
- A pipeline for identifying subtle shape differences was established using closely-related Begonias.
Left: Leaf scans for nine species of Begonia: Begonia listada, Begonia wollnyi, Begonia acetosella, Begonia yapenensis, Begonia bogneri, Begonia bipinnatifida, Begonia luxurians, Begonia angularis and Begonia grandis.
Middle: Leaf shape variation across the Begonia phylogeny.
Right: The morphospace of shape in Begonia section Gireouidia with the morphological diversity of each species in the section projected onto the overall morphospace.
Begonia genomes species B. luxurians vegetative bud
B. conchifolia B. plebeja
B. luxurians B. parviflora
- Key leaf developmental genes in 12 Begoniaceae species were identified for differences in copy number.
-
The candidate genes responsible for leaf shape traits were obtained using QTL analysis.
- Two pairs of sister species were studied: 1) Begonia conchifolia and Begonia plebeja, and Begonia luxurians and Begonia parviflora. Tissue-specific gene expression was then analysed in both leaf and vegetative bud from each species and compared.
Left: QTLs identified for leaf dissection index.
Right: Gene expression data for candidate genes found only in the vegetative bud tissue of both B. conchifolia and B. plebeja.
Gene expression patterns observed between the leaf, petiole attachment (PA) and vegetative bud (VB) tissues of B. luxurians (Blux) and B. parviflora (Bparvi) in two key leaf developmental gene groups (CUC and KANADI).
BENDING BRANCHES
with WAGNER KREUSCH
Negative space, branching points, directional growth: experiment with the dynamism of plant form through the bending of branches.
Hosted on the cusp of winter and spring, this two-day workshop focused on exploring the structure and organic movement found within branches of the season. Reflecting on the fragility of nature is at the core of both Wagner and Cynthia’s artistic practices. They share an appreciation for seasonal plant materials that are unusual and unexpected, and work with a deep admiration for the natural world. Through this workshop, they hoped to encourage and participate in conversations that appreciate the transient nature of plants.
By balancing nature’s intentions with considered manipulation, the workshop valued the brittleness of fragile twigs, the rigidity of straight stems, the unexpected twists and curves of vines, the strength of fibrous branches, and the weight of mossy stumps.
(February, 2024)
CELIA AND WALLY GILBERT ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY, NY
LEARNING THAT CORN HUSKS ARE STRONGER THAN THEIR LEAVES
Barbara McClintock was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine in 1983 - an award that came thirty-five years after her first publication describing genetic transposition in maize. I applied for this residency because I was curious about the sculptural properties of maize and intrigued by Barbara’s approach to working with plants as a cytogeneticist.
Observing different maize specimens throughout their growth stages provided insight into their structural complexities and informed my sculptural interpretations. In addition to maize, I considered the other plant species that were found on the property, embracing the ever-changing forms and allowing site-specificity to dictate the morphological interpretations. My process honoured all stages of plant life, including senescence and decay. The resulting sculptures blended fresh and mature plant materials, emphasising the interplay between controlled growth and spontaneous natural variation. Through documentation, I captured both the evolving nature of the materials and the final compositions, encouraging viewers to engage with plants, especially crop species, beyond their utilitarian perception.
(October, 2023)