flora: The Residencies

From common weeds to exotic cultivars, flowers have been deeply embedded in our lives throughout history, and not least as a powerful inspiration to artists. With the flower at its core, 'flora' celebrates new and existing work by major UK and international artists. This publication accompanies the visually stunning exhibition, which features work by eleven key artists; Emma Bennett, Michael Boffey, Caroline Dear, Anya Gallaccio, Ori Gersht, Owen Griffiths, Anne-Mie Melis, Jacques Nimki, Magali Nougarède, Yoshihiro Suda, Clare Twomey. These artists offer ways in which flowers make visible cultural, historical, geographic, social and scientific ideas.

The residencies, which hosted Magali Nougarede at the national Botanic Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire and Caroline Dear at Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre in Cwmbran, offered distinct experiences for the artists and respective audiences. Each artist considered, in broad terms, the interconnections between people and environment with specific attention to the subtleties regarding site, habitat, sustainability, biodiversity, soil and plants to generate profound and compelling ideas.

Through methods of exploration, discussion, exchange, observation and seeking specialist and local knowledge, the artists posed searching questions, explored links and introduced different perspectives. It has been their absolute enthusiasm combined with that of staff and participants that enabled these residencies to be valuable, rich and meaningful experiences.