Shape Shifters
2008 The Eden Project Cornwall - until 4 September
An exhibition of Photograms by Angela Easterling with Science Text by Alistair Griffiths
We are delighted to welcome Angela Easterling’s Eden-inspired exhibition to the Core, where it will run on the mezzanine floor from May 1–September 4 2008. This major show is the culmination of over five years of study of the plant life at Eden and in the Seychelles.
Angela’s art fuses the boundaries between art and science taking the viewer on a voyage of discovery to explore the extraordinarily complex phenomenon of how plants adapt to their environment.
Angela took her inspiration from the first female photographer, botanist Anna Atkins (1799-1871), who saw the potential in Sir John Hershall’s cyanotype process to create contact sun prints of plant life. At the same time Henry Fox Talbot was experimenting with a silver based photgraphic process also using leaves as his subject matter.
The process Angela follows starts and finishes in the field – from plant collection to the finished photogram. She creates her pictures without a camera and exposes them in the sun. Each image is unique as there are no negatives. Her methods have developed through having to solve problems ‘on the hoof’. She aims to capture what is beyond visible, the reaction of the leaf to the ambient conditions at the time of exposure.
“In theory” Angela explains, “the natural photogram is the simplest form of photography. I place the subject matter on photographic paper and leave it in the sun. The resulting print is then processed, washed and dried. In practice, the technique is more complex and demanding, and I can never be quite sure of my results. I juggle with too many variables; the chemistry of the leaf while it slowly degrades, the changing humidity and the solar Ultra Violet content. When I work with huge specimens such as the Banana or Coco de Mer leaves my physical strength is call upon, manipulating gigantic plants and carrying huge sheets of wet paper. I am always excited when revealing a new print and plant scientists are often surprised by the unexpected colours the leaves have generated in the finished pictures. There are even more unexpected results when working in the tropics where plant specimens, the sun’s spectrum, the humidity and heat, plus even more demanding working conditions contribute to the artistic gamble .
I have thoroughly enjoyed working with scientists at Eden and was delighted when two of the images were acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum and included in their exhibition Seeing Things”
In this exhibition we have something for the art lover, the botanist and the scientist. For the botanist and scientist there is information about the plants and their appearance, their love life, their drinking, feeding and movement habits. The leaves are the plants' solar panels and over time have adapted to their environment to give an amazing array of shapes and sizes. For the art lover we have vibrant images, with colours created by the leaves themselves when they were exposed to the sun’s rays.
Angela, Alistair Griffiths (Eden Plant Scientist) and Sue Hill (Eden Art Director) have chosen pictures to illustrate the wide variety of leaf form There are over one hundred images in the exhibition, including photograms of the tiny Venus Fly Trap, vast Coco de Mer, a critically endangered Seychelles palm and a common Rhubarb.
Some of these images will also be available to purchase as Posters from the ‘Art on Demand’ section in our shop
For the Friends Magazine.