I've always loved looking at botanical illustrations -- very often a plant and all its above- and underground limbs on a white background. My initial thought was to echo that aesthetic, but the more I sat with it, the less enthused I was. There are so many literal versions and interpretations of the classic botanical drawing that it would be dull to do yet another one. More importantly, though, I wanted to create the portraits with no or minimal harm to the plants, which meant I'd need to photograph them as they are, just growing where ever they happen to be.
In parallel, I'd been searching for old white textiles in vintage and second-hand shops -- aprons, night gowns, embroidered towels, pillow cases... I wanted to use them somehow for a mapping project, but I wasn't sure how. As I thought more and more about the plant portrait idea, I realized that those textiles were the white canvas I needed. It just clicked. I wanted something that already carried a lot of memory, and those domestic textiles did just that.
This project is in its early stages. I'm still developing the language for it, so let's see where it leads.
