Rarely Seen Installation – 2012

Rarely Seen is a floor installation depicting 121 distinct critically endangered Australian flowers. Each species is hand-formed with fine white porcelain and positioned in petri dishes that are saturated with a blood-red copper glaze. Hovering precariously above ground level each dish holds an identifiable threatened species. An ambiguous relationship exists between these delicately rendered flowers, that appear to be snap frozen in time, and the scientific apparatus that both confines and defines their existence. 

Whilst scientific intervention and development may protect and prolong the existence of endangered Australian plants, it has also been responsible for the demise of certain species of flowers. Harmful chemical exposure, climate change and rapid urbanization have impacted on Australia’s plant life. Many critically endangered flowers no longer exist in the wild and are carefully cultivated within controlled environments. They cling to the paradoxical nature of scientific intervention.