Chlorophilia
3rd to 6th December 2020
Thursday to Sunday
1pm to 6pm
Alexandra Dementieva | Alistair McClymont | Alma Tischlerwood | David Bloor | Demelza Woodbridge | Hanna Rut Neidhardt + Joachim Raab | Jheni Arboine | Marcia Michael | Marlena Novak + Jay Alan Yim | Nicky Hamlyn | Nicola Rae | Olga Koroleva | Paul Malone | Richard Lawrence | Roei Greenberg | Steven Scott | Chris Marshall | Liz Harrison
Supported by: Cathy Dean and Kenneth Donaldson
Curated by Paul Malone and Nicola Rae
Every day we inhabit the vegetational world. It forms a living interface essential to our existence as biological organisms. In its physical form it represents the substantiation of sunlight through photosynthesis into frondescence, verdure and greenery. Locked within the chemical matrix of every plant are the molecules that give us the perception of 'green'. The chemical formula for this is C55H72MgN4O5, or chlorophyll, and it engages in complex reactions to convert the Sun's energy into living organisms.
Paradoxically, magenta light also occupies a function in this process and is an essential component in the health of plants. To artists, such a contradiction elicits curiosity and a pathway to phenomenological exploration. International artists working in various media will be invited to respond to the theme of light and the vegetational. Each will bring their own interpretation of what the chlorophilic world means to them.
For Aristotle, philia excluded a love of inanimate objects. We propose that a love of foliage, and a fascination with the process of its becoming through sunlight, is a basis for artistic investigation in many different media as chlorophilia.
In many ways this project parallels the transformations that are occurring in the plant world. Who can say where a seed will take root or where a tree will fall in a forest. The history of the vegetational on Earth is redolent with false starts and incredible advances, responses to niche environments and global genetic re-interpretations.
Will we ever understand this complexity? It is a field that will literally never stand still long enough for assumptions to become complacent. As the world enters a new epoch of global greening, we are proposing a new revolution in our understanding of Chlorophilia.
