A BESPOKE artwork installation composed of thousands of preserved flowers aims to wow visitors at Compton Verney.
‘Seasons’ by artist Rebecca Louise Law captures the differing characteristics of winter, spring, autumn and summer, represented in an immersive installation at the art gallery near Kineton.
Filling the largest gallery space, Seasons features real flowers and plants, collected by Rebecca over two years. The physical, undulating natural installation is described by the artist as a wave reflecting the ebb and flow of life.
Seasons will begin with spring, and then take the viewer on a journey through the year using preserved natural materials suspended on copper wires. The concluding section, winter, will be made with nature foraged from the grounds of Compton Verney itself – with the help of secondary school pupils.
Other works on display will include a film projection of the year taken from Rebecca’s Instagram account, plus a selection of floral weaves and copies of the nature diaries she’s kept.
Rebecca said: “Living in Britain, I am fortunate to live in four distinct seasons, winter, spring, summer and autumn. I have never fully explored and appreciated each season through installation art and I am excited to create an artwork that looks in detail at the natural year. Daily studies of nature are recorded and material is collected from my own garden and personal collection of flowers, observing life cycles that are affected by each shift in daylight, every level of moisture, speed of wind and daily temperature.
“Visitors to Compton Verney will be immersed in a year of natural world in Britain through my own eyes. The viewer will temporarily be surrounded by preserved natural flora and foliage that would represent these seasons all entwined into a journey through the year 2020 to 2021. I would like the viewer to have a solitary moment to observe a British year in nature without the pressure of ever-changing time and human interruption.”
Both Rebecca and the gallery team are keen to encourage guests, and particularly children, to engage more with nature particularly after lockdown highlighted the importance of outdoor spaces and nature to wellbeing.
Gallery director Julie Finch added: “Nature has never been more important to society at this point in time, discovery and respect at the centre of this relationship. Rebecca’s work reminds us of the natural calendar of seasons. Art and nature co-exist in our lives from the everyday to the monumental. This show will help us to further define our relationship with nature and art through the joy and wonder that it provides.”
The artwork will be on display from mid-February.
