a printed truth
Exhibition at the Sunroom
Halifax Central Library
June 30 - August 9, 2024
Beginning in the High Renaissance Germany, botanical drawing was established as a powerful and influential presence in printed books. Printed botanical illustrations such as those by Hanz Weiditz in Herbarum Vivae Eicones (Living Portraits of Plants, 1530) or Albrecht Meyer’s illustrations in De Historia Stirpium Commentarii Insignes (Notable Commentaries on the History of Plants, 1542) depicted true likenesses of plants, complete with their natural imperfections or sometimes perfect concepts rather than individual portraits. These illustrations were considered scientifically accurate and used for further research..
The collection of etching presented in a printed truth draws inspiration from this 500 year old practice of sharing knowledge about local flora through the printed image. Learning and sharing not only the structure of a plant, these images also try to impart the understanding that these plants do not ever exist in isolation, but rather are part of a complex ecosystem, they coexist within habitats, together. They attempt to convey an understanding that knowledge itself is always shifting and evolving and that books or records of what we know now, can be layered and folded over time. For example, the way a plant may have been named and classified at one time, can shift and change as we know more about their chemical makeup. Or that a plant’s name may have come from a misunderstanding of where it came from, as in the case of the common milkweed, whose latin name is Asclepias syriaca. “Syriaca” because Carl Linneaus thought it came from Syria when in fact it is native to North America.
It is said that a good drawing may present facts more directly than text because they are instantly read. The etchings presented in a printed truth may also open us up to more questions about the relationships they have with each other, with other species, with us and how much more we have to learn from them.
The collection of etching presented in a printed truth draws inspiration from this 500 year old practice of sharing knowledge about local flora through the printed image. Learning and sharing not only the structure of a plant, these images also try to impart the understanding that these plants do not ever exist in isolation, but rather are part of a complex ecosystem, they coexist within habitats, together. They attempt to convey an understanding that knowledge itself is always shifting and evolving and that books or records of what we know now, can be layered and folded over time. For example, the way a plant may have been named and classified at one time, can shift and change as we know more about their chemical makeup. Or that a plant’s name may have come from a misunderstanding of where it came from, as in the case of the common milkweed, whose latin name is Asclepias syriaca. “Syriaca” because Carl Linneaus thought it came from Syria when in fact it is native to North America.
It is said that a good drawing may present facts more directly than text because they are instantly read. The etchings presented in a printed truth may also open us up to more questions about the relationships they have with each other, with other species, with us and how much more we have to learn from them.
Copperplate etchings on silk gampi tissue, stitched and pinned to cotton support paper, cradled in open pine frames
copyright 2024 carrie phillips kieser.
All rights reserved
All rights reserved