Fantastical Botany
Charcoal, graphite and watercolour on Khadi paper, The Ruskin School of Art (2023 - ongoing)
This work is made while I was trying to find a method to make a book of plants. Frequently feeling interrupted by nature, I decided to document what makes me stop and look in Oxford Botanical Garden. It is not an accurate response to that feeling of interruption because the experiment is intentional and interruptions are accidental (or the intention is outside of my control). However, I went with it and used charcoal to quickly sketch the details that attracted my attention, and then used watercolour independently later in the studio. The next day I used graphite to write down a text (instead of a sketch) to reflect on each encounter. Later, I recorded friends from college, who studied the Arabic language, to try and read what I wrote. The painting of sketches and the voice recording of the text became the fantastical reflection of my immediate yet short interactions. Is this how myths are created, or am I making portals to a parallel space?