Florae Catalogue

Florae

florae ˈflɔːrə: the plants of a particular region, habitat, or geological period.

ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from Latin flos, flor- ‘flower.’

Bernadette Boscacci & Naomi Smith 31 May - 7 July 2013

Umbrella Studios contemporary arts, Townsville

Images: Naomi Smith, Pop Orchid 2013, screenprint on paper; Bernadette Boscacci, Syzigium suborbiculare - Red bush apple, 2013, wire and plastics (installation view).

Florae is a mixed media exhibition that brings together the works of two long-time friends and collaborators.

The exhibition features works inspired by the plant species from this region - the coastal dry and wet tropics of North Queensland. Included are prints on paper and fabric, needlework, weaving, sculpture, paper-cuts, collage, paintings, drawings, photographs, video and installation.

When we commenced our collaboration, we noted there have been infinite representations of florae in art through the ages, across cultures and the globe. Plants have been portrayed to capture the human imagination and experience in numerous contexts - from rock art to botanical drawings, to the use of plant imagery in statements of political and cultural identity. And so, our goal to develop a contemporary exhibition of endemic flora was guided by the question: Why do human beings incorporate florae in art?

This body of works is our response – our works explore the symbolism and roles of flora in art, domesticity, politics, botany and ethnobotany. The featured plant species are ones we encountered while going about our daily lives, travelling and exploring North Queensland. We’ve each approached the theme from very personal standpoints.

The works evolved amongst a sustained dialogue about our florae encounters, and often we integrated each other’s suggestions into our own pieces. This collaborative but individual approach gave us both confidence as we made works for a locally appreciative audience and the cultural tourism market.

“Flowers are a part of culture, firstly because they have been brought under cultivation by mankind and, secondly, because they are used throughout social life, for decoration, for medicine, in cooking and for their scents, but above all in establishing, maintaining and even ending relationships, with the dead and with the living, with divinities as well as humans.”

Jack Goody, The Culture of Flowers

In ancient Roman mythology, Flora, the goddess of fertility, flowers and spring, was worshipped in the spring Floralia festival which celebrated the cycle of life, sexuality and renewal. In more recent art history, during the early Modernist period, Georgia O’Keefe painted accurate representations of flowers at close range. They were full of beauty, form and colour (see Black Iris III, 1926). She denied the Freudian interpretations of the day that suggested she had a compulsion to depict female genitalia, and was later championed by feminist artists such as Judy Chicago, who highlighted the visual, functional and political correlations between these forms.

Images (l-r): Flora, Fresco, Imperial Roman Style, 1st Century AD, at Museo Archeologico, Napoli, Italy; Bernadette Boscacci, Araucaria cunninghamii (after Cutheringa), digital print; Naomi Smith, Native gardenia 2013, screenprint; Rusty Pittosporum 2013, paper sculpture; Golden Grevillea 2013, screenprint.

“I endeavour to delight connoisseurs of art as well as nature enthusiasts.”

Maria Sibylla Merian (Artist, botanist, entomologist 1647-1717). Women Artists, Prestel Publishing NY 2006

In many cultures, plants, particularly flowers, have long been used to decorate domestic spaces in the form of floral imagery on crockery, manchester, floral arrangements and as gardens, all of which play a role in the cultural and domestic lives of the users. It stands to reason that we, as humans are more likely to connect with valued parts of our environment because they are either familiar or beneficial to us. And there is evidence that cultures through the ages sought to ‘tame the wild’ by controlling the way it was incorporated into the cultural and domestic spheres.

Our colonial and modern ancestors did this when they brought species from outside of Australia to decorate their gardens and homes. Generations past now, these same species are seen (and known) as exotics that threaten and dominate native species. One thing is true though, that flora has infinitely fascinating forms, scents, colours and textures that soothe and inspire the human imagination and ground us in our constructed environments – maintaining (however vicariously) our ongoing connection with nature. The domestic is referenced in this exhibition through such works as Naomi’s Quandong Apron, Native gardenia teatowel and sequinned doily, and Bernadette’s Kapok pillow and tablecloth, and her printed fabric lengths featuring Burdekin plums, Poplar gum leaves and native grasses.

Images: (l-r) Bernadette Boscacci, Cochlospermun gillivraei – Kapok pillow and tablecloth(after Ellen O’Farrell & Mary B), 2013; Naomi Smith, Quandong apron, 2013.

Many of the works focus on species from coastal woodlands, which were once widespread in the Townsville dry tropics and are now threatened habitats. When the region around Townsville was colonised in the late 1800s these woodlands were cleared for firewood, building and cattle grazing. To this day, the location of these remaining woodlands in the landscape, generally close to creeks and rivers, means they are often cleared for suburban development.

Image: (l-r): Naomi Smith with Ellen, Izzy & Pearl Clark, Origin, 2013 installation; Bernadette Boscacci, Poplar (after Bohle Plains), 2011-2013, lino & screenprint.

The same can be said of the wet tropics to the north, where we see the rainforest being ‘loved to death’, impacted by agriculture, urban sprawl and tourism.

Works such as Quandong and Smilax are drawn from encounters in northern rainforests, observing cassowaries devouring these and other fruits.

Birds, insects and animals are inextricably linked in renewing the cycle of life in ecosystems.

This is why we have each chosen to feature a species of bird - one a dry tropics (grassland) species - Cisticola exilis (Golden-headed Cisticola) and the other, a wet tropics rainforest species – Casuarius casuarius (Southern Cassowary).

Images:(clockwise from top left): Naomi Smith, Cassowary, 2013, screenprint; Bernadette Boscacci, Cisticola (grassland refugee) & grevillea, 2012, screenprint; Smilax glyciphylla (after Fernyview), 2013, photograph / digital print; Cymbopogan bombycinus (after Tretchikoff), gouache on velvet, 2013.

Endemic aquatic plants also feature in Florae, with three mangrove and two waterlily species shown as paper cuts / sculptures. In salt water environs, mangrove forests are often regarded as muddy, ugly afflictions on our coastlines, but instead are places of wonder and beauty, teeming with activity as the tides ebb and flow through them.

Mangroves shelter our coastal fringes, and replenish our oceans and skies as nursery grounds of major fisheries and haven for birds. In freshwater billabongs it is difficult to ignore the spectacular Sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), and the delicious violet flower of the Blue waterlily (Nymphaea gigantia).

Images: (below l-r) Naomi Smith, Ocean plunge, Waterlily Pond, Truly Divine, 2013, paper sculptures.

During the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, European powers battled to claim territories through voyages of discovery in the ‘new world’. The scientific acquisition of plant and animal specimens, and the illustration of these species from distant lands, was triumphant evidence presented to the Establishment in order to pave the way for future colonial enterprise. Ferdinand Bauer (1760—1826) is to this day recognised as one of the great botanical illustrators. As ship’s artist on Matthew Flinders’ Investigator, Bauer illustrated more than 1700 plant species during the expedition’s 1801-3 circumnavigation of Australia, including two of the species featured in Florae – the Golden grevillea (Grevillea pteridifolia) and the Kapok tree (Cochlospermum gillivraei), which he collected in the Torres Strait. James Cook’s Endeavour voyage is also referenced with the paper cut Rusty pittosporum (Pittosporum ferrugineum), a sample of which was collected on Palm Island in 1770.

But the acquisition of resources and expansion of Empires had devastating effects on the Indigenous peoples and on the ecosystems of these lands. In Australia, European approaches, perspectives and attitudes towards viewing landscape were brought out during the subsequent colonisation project. European explorers and powers saw the Australian landscape with a perspective (and value system) that purveyed the landscape for its colonial possibilities (aka property development). Many of the early European settlers disliked what they saw in these areas and set about changing their environments. This attitude persists today with popular society regarding our open woodlands and ‘bush’ as worthless in comparison to the romance of temperate rainforests and the ‘economic gain’ that can be had from developed land. The woodlands, wetlands and rainforests of northern Australia are, however, places of astonishing beauty, and the extent of this beauty grows when seen with a patient and informed eye.

Images: (above) Ferdinand Bauer, Cochlospermun gillivraei - From Voyages of Discovery (2000); (below) Bernadette Boscacci - Kapok mandala (after Maggie Ruffle), 2013, gouache on paper.

The role of florae as a political tool is evident in Naomi’s works featuring the Cooktown orchid (Dendrobium phaelanopsis), a popular and iconic flower species that has twice been featured on Australian stamps and is the Queensland floral emblem.

To mark the 1959 Centenary of Queensland, the Cooktown orchid was chosen to represent the State as our floral emblem, and was legislated as such under the Badges, Arms, Floral and Other Emblems of Queensland Act 1959. Patriot (in the kitchen) illustrates the public interest raised during the centenary campaign, with a milk jug cover outlining the State of Queensland (crotcheted by Naomi’s great-grandmother for the event) mounted on images of the floral emblem. But despite its popularity as a horticultural species, and as emblematic status unifying and identifying Queensland and its people, the Cooktown orchid is at vulnerable levels in its natural habitat due to overpoaching.

Images: (l-r) Naomi Smith, Patriot (in the kitchen) 2013, mixed media; Cooktown Orchid - stamps 2013, screenprint on paper.

Indigenous artists from all over the world use imagery drawn from their natural environments to decorate, illustrate and emphasise political and social identity. In North Queensland, the richness of Indigenous language names or words for the various parts and types of florae indicate the extraordinary depth of knowledge retained within these ancient Indigenous cultures. Oy berr means ‘bush medicine’ in the Uw Oykangand language from the Kowanyama area of Cape York Peninsula, featured in Alma Luke’s 2011 bush medicine book. The fabric print / design May Min, meaning ‘good food’ in the Wik languages of Cape York’s Aurukun region, is based on drawings and knowledge shared with Bernadette

by Wik-Alkan elder/artist Rebecca Wolmby in the 1990s. Favourite bush foods from woodlands and floodplains are depicted and labeled with their language names, which are still in use. In Wik languages, when ‘may’ is used as a prefix it literally means ‘food’ (plant derived), and it is followed by the plant’s traditional species name.

Images: (left) Bernadette Boscacci, May Min (after Rebecca Wolmby), 1998-2013, screenprint; (above, right) Oy berr (after Alma Luke) 2011, screenprint; (below, right) Planchonia careya - Cocky Apple Cosmos (after Carl Sagan) 2013, mixed media collage; (below left) Acacia holocericea - Psychedelia I (after DMT) 2013, digital print.

Indigenous peoples of northern communities recognise and make good use of seasonal floral signifiers indicating changes in the ecosystem. For example, Cocky apple, with their nocturnal flowering habits are not only traditionally important for their medicinal qualities, but their flowering signals the time of year that Barramundi are heading up the creeks to spawn. These calendar plant species can teach us about the subtle seasonal changes we have here in the north, as well as contributing to the survival of species. In Psychedelia I & II, the use of photography and digital imaging by Bernadette, has resulted in a contemporary perspective of one of our locally common species - Acacia holocericea. These kaleidoscopic prints feature the leaves, branches and seed pods of the tree in a new and revealing way. The plant’s inherent toxic properties and the effects it can have on a creature’s mind or nervous system are implied by the style of the work. i.e. the bark contains the psychotropic DMT and the seed pods are traditionally used as a fish poison. In contrast, the video work ‘Ba Na Na La La’ is a light hearted collaboration by Potash (Boscacci & Rhesa Menkens) that celebrates the little known Bush Banana (Marsdenia viridiflora). It dances and spins to music from foreign lands before it busts forth its faerie like seeds into an urban environment. For version 1: Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHDw0AIhpv4 “My appreciation of flora (and fauna) has grown since childhood - during family camping trips, picnic excursions and times spent in my elders’ gardens. My knowledge and appreciation of native flora developed when I spent time working with Indigenous artists and Rangers in Cape York and the Gulf of Carpentaria. In the last decade I have been fortunate enough to learn more through gardening, while walking and travelling seasonally through country as a field assistant for my partner Peter Buosi, and in making the bush medicine book with Mum Alma. So, I’ve had extensive opportunities to learn about the ecological values of our region’s flora and fauna, and to observe its subtle beauty, from many great teachers and on amazing country! This has been beneficial for me because it’s opened me up to new levels of intimacy with nature, and in doing so, has infinitely enriched my life and perspective.” Bernadette Boscacci 2013 “Just as plants flower, fruit and seed, so it is that a fascination with plants and the bush has developed through my life. Whenever out bush, your soul is replenished and life invigorated. So many adventures with friends and family in northern rainforests, beaches, wetlands, mountain creeks where we swam as children - which still flow today - and now, the joy of exploring the mangroves of South Townsville with my own children. In the garden, too, there is always hope and energy, discovering the intricacies of the renewal of plant life unfold day by day. I guess it all started with my own mother tending orchids in her garden. The wonders of our plant and wider natural world are gifts for us all, fruits we should appreciate. They are essential for our existence, and we should endeavour to curb their destruction at our hands.” Naomi Smith 2013 The artists would like to acknowledge and thank Umbrella Contemporary Arts Studio, Coastal Dry Tropics Landcare Inc, Conservation Volunteers (CVA), Dr Greg Calvert (Opening speaker), Regional Arts Development Fund, our audience, families and friends who continue to support our practice. See References and Further Reading for literature about our local species, the individuals and the organisations working in this area. Written by: B.Boscacci & N.Smith / Layout & design: B.Boscacci / Photos: B. Boscacci & P.Buosi 2013.

482 Flinders Street, Townsville QLD 4810 | 4772 7109 www.umbrella.org.au Funded by The Regional Arts Development Fund (R.A.D.F) - a Queensland Government and Townsville City Council partnership. Umbrella Studio acknowledges the financial support of: The Queensland Government, through Arts Queensland, the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.