South Africa has an extraordinarily large and impressive flora, while the drought still plays a dominant role. Nic Bladen became interested on this aspect of climate change.
The lost shedding is the method he applied in the series “… even at this unfavourable (dry) season …”. The series is attributed to one of the ‘immortals’ of Cape botany, around 1810, William J. Burchell. William travels in South Africa between 1810 and 1815 making one of the greatest scientific explorations of his days. He collected over 50,000 specimens and covered over 7000 km, much of which was over the completely unexplored terrain.
Lost flora was cast in bronze or sterling silver, to create immortality just like he saw William. The organic botanical sculptures that resulted from this lead to an interesting form of sculpture and tenacity of the Cape flora.
For the series, Nic chose the most subtle beauties of plants from his birthplace, the Western Cape.
South Africa has an extraordinarily large and impressive flora, while the drought still plays a dominant role. Nic Bladen became interested on this aspect of climate change.
The lost shedding is the method he applied in the series “… even at this unfavourable (dry) season …”. The series is attributed to one of the ‘immortals’ of Cape botany, around 1810, William J. Burchell. William travels in South Africa between 1810 and 1815 making one of the greatest scientific explorations of his days. He collected over 50,000 specimens and covered over 7000 km, much of which was over the completely unexplored terrain.
Lost flora was cast in bronze or sterling silver, to create immortality just like he saw William. The organic botanical sculptures that resulted from this lead to an interesting form of sculpture and tenacity of the Cape flora.
For the series, Nic chose the most subtle beauties of plants from his birthplace, the Western Cape.
All images © Nic Bladen