In Praise of Plants
FOCUS Foundation Residency, June 2022
This year I had the pleasure to be invited by Pepe Baena Diví, Cultural Director of Focus Foundation in collaboration with Brugarol Group, to participate in their inaugural Artist Residency programme in Girona, Spain.
“Located in Ca n’Heras, a historical rural palace dating back to the XIII century, the FOCUS Artist Residency Programme aims to support and promote artists of diverse backgrounds and disciplines…Our aim is to enrich the cultural landscape of the region. Ca n´Heras is part of the Llémena Valley, an area located in the north of Girona, in the shadow of the Pyrenees and on the border with the Empordà region and the Costa Brava. The residence is surrounded by places of great artistic interest - Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués - historical, as well as gastronomic, wine-growing and of course, surrounded by nature and artistry, which makes this environment an ideal point for research, thinking and innovation.”
When I walked into Las Heras, I was struck by the hydraulic mosaic tiles often used in the Catalunya region since the 19th century to decorate the floors of domestic interiors. I immediately recognised the elegance and rich earthen colours of these geometric patterns combined with floral-like designs from a few abandoned tiles I had seen scattered on the perimeter of my childhood home in Barbados decades ago. More recently, I had seen them in a museum in Dundee–the Scottish city on the River Tay–referred to there as encaustic tiles that regained popularity after this medieval technique was later revived.
To orient and ground myself in this stunning place with a 1000-year-old built history, I spent time meandering around the immediate environs, walking along ancient pathways through the forested lands harvesting small amounts of herbage and shrubs. Like everywhere else, I had a bounty of native plants and guest species (the plentiful Japanese privet or Ligustrum japonicum, for example) that made their way into the Catalunya landscape to choose from. Returning with a daily selection to my ancient stone floor studio, I made twenty-seven meditative-like drawings of vegetation that were both familiar (Queen Anne’s Lace and Oleander) and unusual (Rockrose and Mourningbride).
In speaking with Ignaci, the gardener, I learned of the special quality of the succulent-like Stonecrop (Sedum sediforum) that farmers would place in troughs for their cows to drink as it adds minerals to the drinking water. Or the Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis)–native to the Mediterranean region and often used for seasoning in cooking and which Rosa, the housekeeper, would place in vases throughout communal spaces.
Simultaneously, I started tracing the patterns on the floor of my bedroom, the shared living room, kitchen, and hallway, selecting components of the sophisticated geometry of the hydraulic tiles, marrying them with the botanicals. Merging the carmine ink drawings of flowers and leaves with siena-coloured patterns extrapolated from the tiles, reinforced linkages between the natural world and the urge to be creative while acknowledging the perfect design of the plant world.
The repeated acts of drawing these gorgeous specimens made me feel calm, reminding me of their abundant gifts of healing, their beauty, intelligence, and innate ability to flourish in harsh or unfamiliar terrain while being welcomed by fellow plants who had been there for centuries. I was continually inspired by their grace.
While they wilted in the intensity of Spain’s brutal heat wave, their message to be more plant-like and respectful of the vegetal world could not have been more clear.
Title: In Praise of Plants
Medium: Ink on Paper
Dimensions: 42 cm x 29.7 cm / 16.5” x 11.7”
Year: 2022
Set of 27 drawings
One of the most important dimensions of artist residency programmes is the opportunity for fruitful encounters between creatives. I’m happy to share this podcast episode, produced by fellow-resident Adriana A. Leanza and recorded during the residency in which we explore the evolution of my practice.
In Adriana’s words “It is thought of as an attempt at experimenting with a fragmented, non-linear soundscape, in which the oral transmission of her artistic process intertwines and juxtaposes with natural sounds recorded two years ago near Fresh Milk in Barbados and more recent sounds of Las Heras…Through this developing podcast series, I am asking how as a curator can we facilitate the transmission of the artistic practice beyond the traditional exhibition format. How can we generate new dynamics, ways of doing and living that lead us to imagine more abundant and vital scenarios?”
A big thank you to Jamaica's Poet Laureate Olive Senior, whose poem "Plants" we have included at the end of this episode.
Adriana and I recording in the Las Heras gardens.
