she who had scanned the flower of the world...
Images from exhibitions over the years including the Khyber Arts Centre, Halifax; Or Gallery and Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver.
LAIWAN
she who had scanned the flower of the world...
1987 ongoing
Fresh flower petals placed in glass slide mounts
Begun in 1987 investigating the questions “What is an image? What is a Photograph?”, she who had scanned the flower of the world... is an ongoing project where I collect flowers from the city I am showing in, placing the petals into slide mounts. The flowers can be bought, given, picked to give expression to the species and lives of flowers found at that time and place. The slides are then projected, powered by a slide projector’s autoplay function over the course of the installation. Due to natural causes of duration and temperature affected by heat from the projector lamp and its fierce uncompromising light, the images that the petals project change, evolve, degrade, mold, and fade over the course of the installation. The changes daily and hourly are subtle, delicate, yet visible to an attentive and dedicated viewer. This project’s seeming romanticism is countered by a subtle violence in the work.
This piece has had a variety of incarnations as a live slide projection with an accompanying performative reading of poetic text I wrote. It also exists as a limited edition of inkjet prints hand bound into a book, and as backlit projection and prints shown on the wall in a gallery. The Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery at UBC purchased a set of prints for its permanent collection.
The title she who had scanned the flower of the world… comes from a phrase in a poem by Sappho written in love for a soldier’s wife who had lost her husband to war: she who had scanned the flower of the world’s manhood….