Digital artist in residence Marie Smith presents work from their six month residency at the Horniman Museum and Gardens. Extraction: In conversation with Anna Atkins is Marie’s visual response to their residency which saw them research and explore two elements – people and worming. Marie utilised worming as a tool to aerate and find new paths of inquiry on the Horniman’s Nature Trail, and in its Gardens and collections.
The online exhibition responds to the Horniman’s collection of cyanotypes of botanical specimens made by pioneering Victorian scientist and photographer Anna Atkins, and is inspired by photographs of the Horniman Nature Trail and Gardens, alongside leaves and flowers collected from the Nature Trail. During their visit to the Horniman archive, Marie spent three hours ‘in conversation’ with the Horniman’s historic copy of Atkins’ book Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, made as cyanotype plates in 1848, one of four volumes of Atkins’ important books in the Horniman collection.
Noting that the word ‘extraction’ kept coming to mind, Marie took this as a prompt to reflect on Atkins’ legacy – not just as a botanist and photographer but as someone who married into a family that owned plantations and slaves in Jamaica - as well as the history of photography, and its past and present detriment to the environment.
Cyanotypes of photos from the Nature Trail, alongside leaves and flowers collected there, are overlaid with a transcript of this conversation, addressing Marie’s thoughts and questions on Atkins’ legacy and work.
The exhibition is hosted online at horniman.ac.uk, with an accompanying video of Marie’s process of making cyanotypes, using plant or food-based developers instead of chemicals, filmed in the Horniman Gardens.
Marie Smith says: ‘During my visit to the Horniman archive, I recorded my thoughts as I looked through Anna Atkins’ books on British Algae. This prompted a myriad of personal and theoretical thoughts that explored her working methodology, the life of the algae, the aesthetics of the cyanotypes as well as her explorations as a female artist in the 19th century. The word ‘extraction’ kept appearing and repeating itself in my mind. I took this as a way of commenting on Atkins’ legacy as well as reflecting on the history of photography which continues to have a detrimental effect on the environment.’
A digital trail marking Marie’s points of interest on the Nature Trail is available on the Bloomberg Connects app.
A reading list which informed Marie’s research and the outcomes of their residency at the Horniman can also be found online.
Marie’s six-month residency at the Horniman runs concurrently with artist, researcher and designer Adira Thekkuveettil’s digital residence at the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) in Bangalore, as part of a joint project in partnership with curator and expert in photography Zelda Cheatle.
Adira’s project, Nimbus, plays with ideas of ‘suggestions’ and ‘edits’ as tools of engagement with the MAP collection. Looking closely through Cumulus, the Museum’s Collection Viewing System, Adira looks at details in the entries of artworks and collections beyond the stated information. Drawing connections with other objects and artworks in the Museum’s collection, and proposing playful edits, adding both subjective, as well as objective information, Adira examines what forms ‘enrichment’ can take within a Museum’s collection, and in what ways close viewing can actually open up an archive to scrutiny.
Hear Marie and Adira in conversation with Zelda talking about their respective residencies via this link.
Marie has also been documenting their residency and sharing their experiences on their website.
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