Biota of the Inner Realms
Biota of the Inner Realms
This work investigates the phenomenon of the recreation of biota within interior spaces for preservation and human access, and how these interior landscapes function in the development of relationships between people and the natural world. I explore the ways in which these relationships with the landscape contribute to the formation of identity and belonging, and how that collective sense of identity can lead to the formation of communities and groups whose focus is on preservation, conservation and the rewilding of natural ecologies.
There is a strong correlation between the recreation of the landscape in places like botanical gardens and zoos and in the visualization of flora and fauna within the landscape tradition of painting and sculpture. On a fundamental level they both provide access to the natural world and create empathy with the landscapes that we inhabit. This is a critical means of acknowledging our inherent role in the ecology of these landscapes. The art historical precedents that inform this project are Chinoiserie, Art Nouveau, Romanticism and Fauvism. I believe that there are strong relationships between these movements in terms of how one informs the other, and the focus on visual markers of identity, the development of landscape motifs and iconographies, the sublime or spiritual connection to the landscape, and the phenomenological experience of being in the world all contribute to a rigorous visualization of our relationship to nature.
These paintings oscillate between public and domestic spaces and blur the boundaries between outside and inside, wild and cultivated spaces.