Ethnobotanicals is an ongoing series of miniature mixed media drawings on paper , 19 cm x 14 cm. These works present botanicals that I have foraged, cultivated and cooked in traditional as well as experimental ways since 2018, during projects in Germany and Australia. Social engagement with these plants is documented on my archive The Conceptual Cookbook.
Some of these drawings were created in response to engagement with the Darlo Darlings community group who maintained Alchemy Garden at the National Art School (NAS), Sydney. These drawings were exhibited with Mineral Garden, a collaboration project with Randy Lee Cutler commissioned for NIRIN, 22nd Biennale of Sydney, 2020. The collaboration was presented as an interactive archive and combination of our individual Biennale projects.
Selected plants were cultivated and/or harvested and cooked to make food and drinks for a foragers walk & talk event I presented at the National Art School to mark the end of the Alchemy Garden project.
Ethnobotanicals are plants that link us socially, culturally and economically to a place and time. These drawings are presented as abstract recipes for food–plant–people encounters now and in the past. See here an essay written by Andrew On the Movement of Plants for the Biennale publication NIRIN NGAAY (created by Negative Press).