'An Undiscovered Plant - with a cure for cancer.'

 

Elora Sculpture Project - 2021

 

‘My. how peculiar! Just what is this? It’s not like any plant I’ve seen before. It’s so BIG. - and so strange looking…’
This sculpture is in the form of a huge jungle (?) plant. A cluster of arching stems each hold individual frosted glass ‘flowers’. Towering above these are a group of huge and complex ’seed pods’. Bundled at the base are long blade shaped leaves.

... In truth it is the title that conveys the meaning to the piece, beyond creation of the fantastic. I also wanted to be less obvious that last year’s ‘Last to Sea’, and ‘Legacy’ in 2018. The starting point here was suggested by the 1992 film ‘Medicine Man’, about an isolated scientist in the Amazon, pursuing a plant based cure for cancer, and battling the destruction of the same rain forest where the rare plant can be found.  

(from the full description, published earlier)

On Friday, with the assistance of Kelly Probyn-Smith of Elfworks Studios, I installed the completed sculpture :

 

Overall view, from the walkway, towards the north east with the river behind.

Looking towards the south east

'With the Artist' - gives a better idea of scale *

One of the concepts I have developed in earlier work is contrasting colour against the natural appearance of forged steel. 

In the fire, steel will take on a flat, dark grey colour, with various textures depending on the hammering process. (It is not 'black', within the modern perception of colour.) Many of the past works presented at Elora have worked directly with how various metals oxidize with time ('Layers' - 2013 / 2016) or with the use of subtle colours against surface rusting ('Spears of Summer' - 2014). 

Modern steel alloys will rust on exposure to weather, if not protected by some coating system. Most typical is the use of industrial enamel, either a flat, or most commonly a glossy black paint. This actually bears little resemblance to the natural colour and texture of the freshly forged surfaces. To my mind, a bright, shiny, fire engine red is just as 'honest' a protective coating!

Given the overall 'fantasy of nature' intent to 'Undiscovered Plant', I chose to use a base coat of a bright gloss green. You can see that it is not that much different than the leaves of the early tulips planted already around the presentation space. The leaves have a wash of a darker green on their outside surfaces, with a highlight of a florescent green applied where they wrap into their stems.

The tendril like 'stamens' that form the core of each 'seed pod' element were dip painted to a yellow. These were then highlighted using two more florescent spray paints, with a bright yellow from below, then an orange downwards from the very tips of the element. The leaves making up the exterior of each bundle were painted a darker green than used elsewhere. (As you can see, it was overcast when the images were taken, the full impact of these bright colours is not as apparent as they are in life!)

Although it is harder to see in the images, each of the top ends of the bell flowers merges to a darker green. There is a slight hint of blue in the interior of the tendrils that hold the glass bells. 

Showing one of the 'seed pods', with the glass 'bell flowers' behind.

Close up of one of the seed pod elements, showing colour variations.

The physical dynamic of forging such long / heavy elements I have found pretty punishing over the last month. The weather over the last week had been uniformly cold and wet (night times about 4 C, days up to only about 12 - 15 - with rain almost every day). This seriously effected the application of the many layers of paint required for the effects I wanted. 

 

Taken altogether, I am extremely pleased with this sculpture. It is visually striking, and with consideration of the title, still conveys the subtle (but extremely important) message. 

* Image by Kelly Probyn-Smith