Organic materials, paint, ceramic, cyanotype, photography
Fibonacci and fables (2017) is a sculptural installation and series of cyanotypes made from site-specific organic materials. The artwork was created during LUMEN, an astronomy-themed art residency in Atina, Italy, and exhibited at a local church.
I was enticed by local myths about celestial objects and beings such as the Roman god, Saturn, who after his exile from Olympus, fled to ancient Latium (modern-day Atina) where Janus, god of the sun, granted him refuge and gifted him part of the green and fertile land. This inspired me to look to folklore and literature from other cultures about the sun and moon in particular. An Inuit legend explained the movement of the sun and moon through the sky as a brother and sister constantly chasing each other following an argument. Ancient Greeks believed the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis phenomenon was a result of strong solar activity conducted by Aurora, Goddess of the dawn and sister of Helios and Seline (sun and moon respectively), who raced across the sky in a multicoloured chariot to signal a new day. Some Nigerian tribes depict the sun and moon as a dualistic, androgynous figure: Mawu, the feminine goddess of the moon and Lisa, the masculine god of the sun. In Dante's Divine Comedy, Beatrice leads Dante through the nine spheres of Heaven including the moon, sun and stars. I painted scenes from these tales on ceramic plates.
Atina is a picturesque town in the province of Frosinone, Lazio surrounded by pine forests, lakes and mountains. In the aftermath of a nearby forest fire, I observed a layer of burnt pinecones on the forest floor, as well as some lichen and fern that had survived the fire. I was drawn to the resilience and geometric beauty of these natural forms, especially the precise spirals of the pinecones following the Fibonacci sequence. Inspired by a visit to the local observatory to look at structures in the sky, I constructed an observatory from fallen pinecones to house the painted ceramic plates.
The installation is a shrine to our natural surroundings, the sun and moon, and the stories we tell.
I took photos of the natural structures encountered in the forest, which were printed onto acetate and applied to cyanotype paper. In the blazing midday sun, these developed into rich blue images accentuating the geometrical features and power of biophilic design.
