Madeleine Palmer
I’m particularly interested in the historical depiction of the flower in the still life painting tradition, and the potential of its reworking within a surreal digital setting.
My paintings explore the way we see and experience flowers; as an icon of beauty, touching on memories and the sensory perception of being present amongst nature. The paintings provide an altered perspective and relationship with reality by prompting the viewer to search for familiarly in the absence of identifiable connections.
The process of making the works is contemplative and laborious. By abstracting and warping the visual planes, the sculptural quality of the orchids are amplified, creating psychedelic ribbons of colour and biomorphic forms.
My installation, Not-So-Spontaneous-Ruderal-Vegetation (2019), made in collaboration with Max Bregar, brings together horticultural and artistic sensibilities in the creation of a living installation that engages new ecological readings. It interrogates and reframes the capacities of ruderal vegetation, or weeds, with unique survival and remediation characteristics. By aesthetically curating the unaesthetic, turning it on its head, the installation ‘greens’ the gallery space from the top down, presenting new ways to understand the vegetal world.
Orchid I, 2020
Oil on canvas
1220mm x 920mm
Orchid II, 2020
Oil on canvas
1220mm x 920mm
Orchid III, 2020
Oil on canvas
1220mm x 920mm
Orchid IV, 2020
Oil on canvas
1220mm x 920mm
Diptych I, 2020
Oil on canvas
820mm x 565mm
Diptych II, 2020
Oil on canvas
820mm x 565mm
Not-So-Spontaneous-Ruderal-Vegetation, 2019
Weeds, recycled glass jars, soil and metal
3000mm x 1200mm x 1200mm
Not-So-Spontaneous-Ruderal-Vegetation, 2019
Weeds, recycled glass jars, soil and metal
3000mm x 1200mm x 1200mm