Samantha Thole was invited to talk about the research she did for her new series of wall paintings for the exhibition Blossom. In these works the relationship between evolution and cultural development take centre stage. But both projects were also irrigated by long-standing beliefs that women share a particular affinity with the natural world. Gendered botany was an artist talk/ lecture on this nature-gender link based on her artistic practice. This included themes as:
* horti-counter culture;
* the garden as a conflict zone;
* indecent taxonomy and the defeminisation of science;
* the encryption of social life through the language of flowers.
Images lecture Gendered Botany, from top to bottom, left to right;
– (l) Tiger lily, (r) Dahlia, Samantha Thole, watercolours and pencil on paper, 2017
– Light of Iris, Georgia O’Keeffe , oil on canvas, 1924
– Apollo and Daphne, marble sculpture, Bernini 1633-25
– Hortus conclusus / Emilia in the rose garden, Giovanni Boccaccio, 1460