Orchidaceous was a collaborative project from last year with the Suffolk botanist Martin Sanford. Martin is an expert on orchids and so it seemed obvious we would work around that theme. Combing orchids and human sparked both our imaginations, so we began thinking about life processes that relate to both – birth, growth, sex, illness and death. Martin suggested we set up a Pinterest page. This would be a site on which we could exchange visual ideas throughout the project and where I could reference my artist research.
After an exchange of emails and meetings with the owner of Arlingtons Brasserie, Martin and I were invited to be part of Café Scientifique hosted by Arlingtons. The evening would include a display of my artwork, a talk by Martin and an ‘experiment’. The ‘experiment’ would be a test on the reputed aphrodisiac properties of Salep on willing members of the audience. Half the audience would be given coffee containing Salep while the other half would be given a vanilla-flavoured ‘control’ coffee.
With my work for Orchidaceous I wanted to explore our connection to nature through the notion of change. I began by looking at Mat Collishaw’s work Insecticide. These beautiful images taken by Collishaw are a haunting reminder of death. Velvet butterfly wings are crushed and torn, for the viewer this is both fascinating and repulsive at the same time.
My research began by looking at Charles Darwin and his marriage to his cousin Emma Darwin. I decided to use Emma Darwin as my starting point for a work which I wanted to have beauty but also have a sense of unease and sadness.
Detail of Beauty, Life and Sorrow
Sarah Bale. (2014) Beauty, Life and Sorrow [flowers, moths and butterflies]
Martin posted an image to our Pinterest page which I wanted to work with. As Martin and I had discussed life processes being applicable to both human and plant I wanted to create an artwork on the theme of life and birth. In my artist research I looked at the collaboration between Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin for the exhibition Do Not Abandon Me. For this series of work the human form is depicted in delicate washes of gouache on paper. What I love is the fluidity which is achieved by paint bleeding into paper in all directions across the surface, just as veins are seen under the skin. I made my final work in pastels. In hindsight, I wish I had experimented with paint and other media but there was the pressure of time. The finished piece hasn’t photographed that well but I’ll still post it here.
sketchbook research
Sarah Bale (2014) Quiet But Not Silent (18 weeks) [chalk pastel]
Glenn Brown is an artist who ‘borrows’ from the Old Masters. Images we are all familiar with are distorted in Photoshop and the colour is then intensified. Brown then spends hours recreating the image in paint. I liked the idea of creating portraits of Charles and Emma Darwin and perhaps include some of their children. I wanted to create work that was a little unnerving with strong colour. I think the final framed images which were displayed in Arlingtons worked well and I was very pleased with the piece of work. If I had more time I would have liked to reproduce one or more of the images in paint.
Sarah Bale. (2014) Anne Darwin [print]
Sarah Bale (2014) Darwin, Family Photographs [print]
Phallaenobsis (named by Martin) and Contract were my two final pieces for Orchidaceous. Contract was made in Photoshop and is a mix of text from Orchids a Pratical Handbook and 50 Shades of Grey. The layout and design is based on a page in Darwin’s book Fertilisation of Orchids.
Sarah Bale (2014) Contract [print]
Last year I went to see the Sarah Lucas exhibition Situation: Absolute Beach Man Rubble at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. This has to be one of the most memorable exhibitions I have been to. Lucas is rude, funny, controversial and knows how to pack a visual punch, so inspired by her work I decided to make a small sculptural piece. Martin had posted a plant image to our Pintrest page and I thought this would be perfect for the theme of sex. I wanted to incorporate Orchids and insects in the work – a symbol for Darwin and life. This is the first time I have made anything like this and I’m quite pleased with it and it certainly got a good reaction at the Orchidaceous evening.
Sarah Bale (2014) Phallaenobsis [butterflies, moss, tights, orchids]
I hoped that in the end the viewer came away from Orchidaceous smiling, thinking and asking questions about our relationships with each other and nature. Work for the project involved continually experimenting with different media, which was a great learning experience. Also building working relationships with people during the collaboration was positive and rewarding, and has enabled my practice to grow.
