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Unsuitable Replacement

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posted on 2021-12-20, 04:43 authored by Marni StuartMarni Stuart

The artwork Unsuitable Replacement creates the framework botanical culture as means of environmental conservation.

RB

This project sits within the fields of ecology, conservation, and design.

Wandersee & Schussler (1999) suggest that plant blindness is our inability to see unfamiliar plants. Dr Sue Davis (2020 p. 73) who supports the creation of botanical culture to address the nature/culture duality. Artist Kathleen McArthur (1989) used artefacts of botanical culture to conserve important habitats.

This work emerges from Stuart’s PhD research asking: How can botanical observation be used as an ecofeminist act of ecological activism?

RC

The latest iteration of ongoing research, Unsuitable Replacement depicting a plastic bag decorated with a floral pattern, sitting within coastal dunes. The bag replaces the plants lost through environmental degradation. The pattern, echoing Stuart’s commercial patterning practice, depicts endemic plants of the dunes. The inclusion of sound and movement connects the viewer to the space.

The artwork, using the cultural artefact of patterning, builds a botanical culture. Contrasting the natural and artificial stimulates the public discussion around conservation. Highlighting the endemic plants, counters plant blindness.

The artwork exhibits the potential to evolve a practice into conservation though a botanical culture framework.

RS

Unsuitable Replacement was developed in response to an invitation show in the exhibition See and Seaing based on the quality of the artists practice and ability to deliver the message of the exhibition. The exhibition asked how fashion can resolve our reliance on plastic bags. The was artwork accepted for exhibition by the curators, RMIT lecturers; Dr Denise Sprynskyj and Dr Peter Boyd. The exhibition was hosted online by Melbourne Design Week, supported by the National Gallery of Victoria, publicly viewable for five days and received 600 visits with hits from Australia, Brazil, USA, UK, China, Ireland

History

Year of publication

2021