Mary Rosengren

Fruitingbodies, Digitalis & The Real Thing
an exhibition of prints & artists books

Tuesday 10 March—Friday 3 April 2009
Opening Refreshments
12.30–1.30pm Tuesday 10 March

Doctor of Creative Arts (DCA) candidate with the Faculty of Creative Arts, Mary Rosengren, presents an exhibition of prints and artists books in the University of Wollongong Library.

Mary Rosengren’s practice reflects an ongoing interest in technology and nature, — and the particular lacunae between the experience of extreme environments and their visualization. The prints in the series Fruitingbodies, Digitalis and The Real Thing draw together images, inscriptions and textual material from her own field trips, and from historical and contemporary sources in western science.

In 2005 Mary re-established her practice in Australia after 15 years in the UK, where she had exhibited and worked with artist networks in Scotland. In addition to exhibiting in the UK and Japan, Mary has continued to exhibit in Australia. Her work is represented in national and private collections in Australia, USA and UK.

This series of limited edition archival prints and artist’s books, Fruitingbodies, Digitalis & The Real Thing combine references and images from botanical history with contemporary visualizations of plant subjects.

Digitalis

The images, inscriptions and maps in Digitalis refer to the link between representations of nature and the development of botany. Observations and descriptions of plant for their use and beauty are combined with fragments of fact and invention. The familiar and exotic, Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) and Peacock Flower (Caesalpina pulcherrima) their medicinal values noted, converge in the quaternary plan of the early botanical garden of the medical school of Padua University (1545)

The Real Thing

The botanical herbarium specimen and its image (icontype) come together in The Real Thing. The prints reflect status of visual knowledge and the role of the artist-scientist in developing a specialized view of nature. From the 17th Century observations by Maria Sybilla Merian in Suriname, Walter Fitch and J D Hooker’s work on Flora Antarctica 1844, to recent work of Rod Seppelt on sub -Antarctic moss in The Moss Flora of Macquarie Island 2004.

University of Wollongong Library
Panizzi Room
Ground Floor Building 16
University of Wollongong

Previous Exhibition: Re-Imaging Nature: Hidden Visions & Ground Truth – September 2008