A multi sensory exhibition
With Bindweed, Floating Pennywort & Himalayan Balsam
Poems: Kay Syrad
Music: Jonathan Dove, Ian McCrae, Alex MacInnis
Shift Gallery 2-23 June 2019
I ‘paint’ the walls of the gallery with the leaves and flowers of invasive species. I respond, move and create to the music written for each of the three plants. Visitors watch and wander, converse and read the poems and invasive species information on the walls of the gallery. The work continues for two hours, on occasion being interrupted by a recitation of the poems, nettle tea and a piece of cake and interweaving rising curiosity about how ‘invasive’ can be interpreted.
The piece is durational. For 21 days the movement of the markings on the walls continue to change, to fade or darken. The gathered and dropped plants pile up, dry and moulder, the atmospheres of the weather change and alter the intensities and scents. It is a subtle changing plant painting taking over the white walls of the space.