The work I am making at the moment explores value. The value of stuff; of materials, of memory and, perhaps, of art and the creative process. The pictures in the Botanical Conservation Series (with butterflies) necessarily attempts to quite literally reframe our view of specific dead plants and butterflies. The plants and butterflies lived and died- unique natural existances and as such cannot be replicated. The collection of plant labels is finite, a collection from a botanical garden at a specific time and they represent specific (now dead) plants. The collection of butterflies is one which was made in 1976 at a particular place in Nigeria and cannot be added to (there are around 40 butterflies, but their fragility and age means that they are not robust and some have deteriorated). So, the pictures become unique and authentic and cannot be fabricated from other materials. I am a facilitator - reframing their worth. My intention is that these pictures go some way to remind us of their brief lives. Yet they are so much more than the value of their constituent elements - they are the result not just of a lengthy creative process but also experiencing, and processing, grief and loss. They are only just finding their way.
