present (#2) pre-laborate

mapping existing reading and thinking to start iteration
the first thing i did was redacted the word plant, or anything to do with vegetal things to change the message of the book
following that i made the plant drawings into new plants via collage
i found the new shapes created interesting
they take on a new natural form of their own

i have been reading ‘covert plants’ – vegetal consciousness and agency in an anthropocentric world which is a collection of texts edited by prudence gibson and baylee brits.

i started making drawings from the collages, thinking about them as new forms of their own and how they make reference to growth and the resiliance of nature.

“in dystopian sci-fi, we figure the loss of plants as the end of all hope, and the miraculous growth of plants in hostile environs as hope’s beginning”

-tessa laird spores from space

i created some anthropomorphic plant collages from found images this time to further my collaging exercise
the next step for me was to start learning how to animate. this animation that shows the growth of a new leaf was just to introduce myself to the ideas of stop-frame.
both of these short clips come from drawing influenced by the collages created from the book. the second seems to be hiding itself away. i have been thinking a lot about the epistemic distance between humans and nature and made this piece to touch on these ideas, it’s hiding itself away- this is something i’d like to explore more going forward with this project.
another skill i have been trying to learn has been 3D rendering on cinema 4D. I want to be able to make these fantastic plant beings and potentially make them move. I will be continuing with my tutorials and learning with this.

“humans are so used to or conditioned ‘to know’ plants, and claim to understand the exceptionalism of human condition that it becomes difficult to step back and consider there might be a non-human intelligence outside human understanding”

-baylee brits and prudence gibson

print ideas, analogue and digital. the hand cut prints make reference to climate crisis march signs, which wasn’t intentional but definitely adds a new level of interest for me and is something i will be taking further from this.

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