Emergent Specimens
Spray Paint, Water soluble Graphite on paper.
Emergent Specimens aims to isolate native plant specimens that are overlooked and disguised. The work seeks to uncover the hidden layers of plant life that exist in our scenic reserves which act as the backdrop to our suburban spaces. These backdrops are made up of native flora which exist in contrast to the same specimens surviving in the ‘typical’ suburban garden.
“Arcadia is a place where human beings cooperate with nature to produce a richness of ecological variety that would not otherwise exist . . . But it could be that our very instinct for Arcadia misleads us, fools us into thinking that we can recreate the place of our origins”
Park, Geoff, Theatre Country: Essays on Landscape and Whenua. Victoria University Press, 2006.
‘Green Screen’, as recommended by Palmers Garden Centre.
Spray paint on paper, 1000 x 1500 mm (five parts).
The construction and re-construction of plant-rich pockets of land are held in both public and private ownership. These may represent the native ideal or aim to create a personal space that meets botanical desires and tastes. In both of these spaces, flora can be treated as a backdrop, filler or screen, as well as made a feature of, by way of composition and arrangement.
Advice is abundant and readily available from D.I.Y and home improvement stores. Sales staff are willing of their advice on plant selection and arrangement when constructing the ideal suburban garden. Mass-produced native plant life is often recommended, because of their ‘hardy’ and ‘quick growing’ characteristics. In my garden, the use of native planting is vastly different than the naturally sustained ecosystems that existed in pre-colonial New Zealand. Boundaries between these spaces reveal the tension between protected areas of vast plant life and the suburban backyard.
In the suburban garden, native and exotic plants are often selected for their growth patterns and characteristics, not their origins. Suburban native plants are hidden in the ‘Green Screens’ we live amongst; a completely different habitat than their endemic and historic counterparts.
Meg White Art + Design 