While my residency does not begin for another month or so, I have been gathering more research, ideas and inspiration on the meantime. Although I was aware of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, I have only recently revisited it as a perfect way to begin gathering examples of botanical, scientific illustration as well as natural history. Looking through their Flickr feed (I’ve linked it in the post) has been a great way for ideas to start developing in my mind about what work I could create next.
In many of the plates seen in their feed, parts of the specimens have been taken completely out of their context and presented in these plates in various compositions. Many of the texts are also in various languages so it becomes even harder to place the specimens drawn, disconnecting them and making them seem almost alien. It is sometimes hard to judge if what is being shown is viewed from under a microscope, a part of a plant, animal. This makes them even more fascinating for me, as it has began to circulate ideas for my project.
