From the series In Our Nature 2017,
First shown:
Santos Museum of Economic Botany Adelaide Botanic Garden
4 March – 3 June 2018
“I delve into the informal rites of passage that young people seek out in nature and create symbolic images and experiences which aim to bridge the separateness that we as humans create between us and nature.”
Tamara Dean has long been aware of the cyclical rhythm of it all: of nature, people, and time itself. For the 2018 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, she directs an almost exclusive focus on moments of flux, growth, and decay. Created over four visits to the Mount Lofty and the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, each during a different season, In Our Nature owes its origins to the whim of the elements.
The models, of varying ages, behave according to the changing appearance and character of each plant, with the artist herself determining the momentary combinations of form, light, and tone. Although picturesque, the final images represent more than the merely visible: in these fleeting moments, Dean captures a kind of interconnectedness—a link that seems to call into question the very nature of our being. Following on from the eighteenth-century traditions of botanical art, Dean carefully observes flora through the human experience of it. Her approach can be found in the words of German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who felt new botanic knowledge should be understood with a sense of ‘gentle empiricism.’
Pampas Grass (Cortaderia selloana) in Autumn, 2017
$9,000
In stock
From the series In Our Nature 2017,
First shown:
Santos Museum of Economic Botany Adelaide Botanic Garden
4 March – 3 June 2018
“I delve into the informal rites of passage that young people seek out in nature and create symbolic images and experiences which aim to bridge the separateness that we as humans create between us and nature.”
Tamara Dean has long been aware of the cyclical rhythm of it all: of nature, people, and time itself. For the 2018 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, she directs an almost exclusive focus on moments of flux, growth, and decay. Created over four visits to the Mount Lofty and the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, each during a different season, In Our Nature owes its origins to the whim of the elements.
The models, of varying ages, behave according to the changing appearance and character of each plant, with the artist herself determining the momentary combinations of form, light, and tone. Although picturesque, the final images represent more than the merely visible: in these fleeting moments, Dean captures a kind of interconnectedness—a link that seems to call into question the very nature of our being. Following on from the eighteenth-century traditions of botanical art, Dean carefully observes flora through the human experience of it. Her approach can be found in the words of German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who felt new botanic knowledge should be understood with a sense of ‘gentle empiricism.’
