The Wildflower Project
(2024 - ongoing)
This ongoing body of work explores themes of nature, extinction, family narratives, and feminist movements in science through a collection of botanical plant ephemera assembled by my maternal grandmother, Dolores Lad, between 1983 and 1996. Her collection includes mounted botanical specimens, loose-pressed flowers between old newspapers, 35 mm Kodachrome slides of wildflowers, and meticulous journals documenting her observations of plant life.
The Wildflower Project: Mounted Flowers 1985-86, Archival Pigment Prints, Custom Metal Display Rack, Prints 13 x 19 inches each, The rack is 14 feet and holds 36 prints
The mounted wall rack in this piece functions like a book spine, allowing a new form of interaction with documentation of mounted pressed flowers, which were collected and preserved for research by my grandmother, Dolores Lad. Each metal bar can swivel to the left and right. Viewers have the potential to move and change the display (like an architectural blueprint rack). As a nontraditional "publication," this installation challenges the linearity of narrative and the function of an archive.
what survives in an age of beauty and fear?, Mirror, Aluminum, Photographs on Transparency Film, 14 x 12 inches, (1 in of series of 4 unique grids)
This photo-based work mounted on a mirror features a grid of wildflowers researched by my grandmother, interspersed in a checkerboard pattern with photographic documentation of US nuclear bomb test images found in public government records. I am interested in juxtaposing a small collection of private research and public documentation of atomic history found in national archives. The images are embedded on a mirror plate and held with an aluminum border.
life becoming death becoming life, Mirror, Aluminum, Photographs on Transparency Film, 5 x 9 inches
This photo collage on a glass mirror compares the evolution of the atom, bomb, and mushroom cloud with that of the cell, seed, and flower.
The Wildflower Project: The Plain Dealer 1985-1986, Photographs, Inkjet Dye Prints, 115 x 103 inches (prints 12 x 19 inches)
In this series of photographic prints, the pressed flowers overlap pages of newspapers from the time they were collected, prompting questions about the interaction of the social-political world and its ecology. Headlines read "US officials probe Alabama counties for voting rights violations," "John Kennedy rated best among past nine presidents," and "Cable bid job is boon to five consultants." These headlines speak to the contemporary political concerns when my grandmother gathered the preserved flowers. The layering prompts questions about the relationship between the natural world and broad social movements. Pressed specimens include wild hyacinth, jack in the pulpit, and joe pye weed.
Weed Study, mixed media image transfer, 8.27 x 11.69 inches
SPRING BEAUTY, mixed media image transfer, 8.27 x 11.69 inches
Thank you to the Greater Columbus Arts Council for generously supporting this project through a 2024-2025 Artist Projects grant. This grant is reviewed and selected by community members.