Arwen Flowers | Artist
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Post residency - experimentation

3/6/2016

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My artist residency concluded at the end of March this year, but my work with printing combined with photograms has continued.

The other day I was looking into using background washes of colour behind the photograms of Pohutukawa leaves, inspired by Paul Jenkins (1923-2012), an American artist who's large scale works of bucket-thrown paint are beautiful. I do like the way these images of mine come together, but they are not perfect so - more work!

One development was that I have been able to produce A3 sized work, larger than the 20x20cm pieces I have been doing. I am excited about this as scale is an issue to me. I keep wanting to work bigger. It's the limitations of washing/fixing trays that are keeping me back. I think I may have a 'fix' for that though, investigation to come.
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Ode to the Pohutukawas

26/3/2016

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The old Pohutukawa trees that surround where I have been living during my stay in Piha are a strong presence. I have photographed them in a few different ways since I arrived here - at night, in moonlight, first thing in the morning etc. This afternoon I stumbled upon a combination of afternoon light and an idea I first visited about a year ago - out of focus-ness. And there I had it, what I was after - more of a feeling then a record of details (clearly), but I like these images best, so far.
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EVENT - Artist Residency Talk

15/3/2016

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You are invited to my talk about the photographic and printing processes involved in making my work through this residency. I will offer several pieces for in-depth discussion as well as present a small exhibition of completed pieces.

There will also be a little gentle participation experience, to engage you in considering the act of collecting as a thoughtful process that meets a need for connection with the environment while promoting care for the natural world.

It will be held at the Earthskin premesis. Please walk down to the end of the drive way (exception can be made if required).

Artist: Arwen Flowers
Hosts: Nancy King and Véronique Desmet
www.earthskin.co.nz
Sunday 27 March 2016
​2.00 - 5.00pm
171 Motutara Rd, Muriwai Beach, Auckland

Please accept the event invitation on facebook or RSVP to kiwiartist@gmail.com
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My artistic workflow

9/3/2016

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I'm really happy with my progress this week, so I thought I would share an example of how one of the first pieces was made...
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First I use the Gelliplate to create the top half in colour using foliage from around where I am staying. I try to pick plants that relate to the subject.
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I have done an edition of 3 when doing Van Dyke Brown prints (so far), but the finals are all still very different from each other as the monotypes can't be replicated - each print is a one-off.
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The transparency is taped to the glass and after coating my paper with Van Dyke Brown emulsion, which I made a few weeks ago, I sandwich the sensitised paper between the transparency, glass and heavy board (while in my makeshift darkroom). This is called contact printing and the image is the same size as the transparency negative. It takes between 5-15 minutes to expose this print in sunlight, depending on how much cloud cover there is. I haven't made any on darker days.
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I then rinse it in water, fix with 'Hypo' and rinse/soak again in water. I repeat all this for each image till I have done all three. Then they need to be rinsed gently in flowing water so that's where the next step comes in...
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The prints are basically clean, but this step ensures they won't fade (well anything will if you leave it in the sun long enough so don't put art work in direct sunlight ok?). The handy little stream is just the right depth for my basin and the holes in the handles allow the water to flow around the prints without the lot getting over-flooded. I put a couple of rocks in the bottom and made a bit of a dam to make perfectly sure they don't float away (it rocks). 15 minutes in here while I go for a walk...
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Once rinsed the print is dried flat under tea towels and weighted to help it dry flat as possible. Then I hand-colour to get the final look I want.

This print was all about the yellow bowl and is called 'Catching Hymenoptera'. Hymenoptera are ants, bees, wasps etc. and diptera are flies. The yellow bowls are mainly used by those in the Natural Sciences for collecting small parasitic wasps of which some are native to New Zealand.
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A beginning, Natural Sciences and the practice of collecting

7/3/2016

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'A coherent and synonymised checklist of names enables the integration of studies from disparate sources, further enriching our understanding of the world’s biodiversity.'
Source: http://www.catalogueoflife.org/content/about#2

I have settled in to my residency space at the Waygood Foundation in Piha. It’s not hard to feel connected to nature here. I’m in a small dwelling nestled in among old Pohutukawa trees (Metrosideros Excelsa) with a distant view of the ocean from the lengthy wrap-around balcony. As well as picking produce from the rambling gardens - choosing from edible weeds, herbs, vegetables and some fruit, I can thoughtfully contribute to the worm farm and composting while I stay.

I’ve begun thinking about how to put information and media together into something that makes ‘art’ sense. I’ll be spending time on the laptop making digital negatives, indulging in a bit of plant collecting, photographing the landscape at large and in detail and I also need to think about how I want to combining printed Monotypes with an alternative photographic process.

Yesterday I visited the Auckland Museum for a one-on-one well guided tour through some of the Natural Sciences’ specimen collections, that are kept in large part for research study. When Auckland Museum was first established it would only open one day a week, now the Herbarium itself gains an additional 5000 plant specimens a year and 3000 new insects are added too. The room to store everything is diminishing - there are cabinets and storage closets in the hallways. Fewer bird samples are processed each year as no active collecting has been allowed for many decades. 

There is amazing variety in the way things are prepared for storage - taxidermied, freeze dried, pressed, aired and soaked. There is also wide variation in how they are finally stored - wet in alcohol, mounted on acid-free pages, in open cabinet trays, under glass in boxes, under glass domes, standing mounts, wall mounted and in acid free cardboard boxes.
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Not many of the processing and storage methods have changed a lot since the late 1800’s, but the ability to control humidity and temperature has helped to preserve the life of most of the pieces. Many items in the Museum's bird and insect collection should last hundreds of years. This lengthy amount of time helps to study species change.

Some of the collections have been re-numbered 10+ times and not all collections use the same numbering systems, which can be problematic. There are specimens that have missing data making them useless for serious study. But they do make good pass-around items for curious kids.
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I have to give credit to the Auckland Museum’s collections and staff for providing me with a huge amount of material that I can use. They are currently working hard to digitize both the records and images of every specimen kept. That’s a lot of work. If you’re keen to look at the collections online, be prepared to learn your Latin names to find what you’re after.
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The cicadas sing all day
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The view from my balcony south over the tree tops
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Agathis Australis (Kauri foliage). Collected from Kauri Gully, Northcote by Thomas Cheeseman, who in 1874 was appointed Secretary of the Auckland Institute and Curator of the recently founded Auckland Museum
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Study skins of Anthus Novaezealandiae, one example was collected March 1887
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Van Dyke Brown Photography

16/2/2016

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‘People expect photography to be honest, accurate and reproducible...Of course none of these are true. Photography is infinitely mutable, and always was.’
Quote: Dr. Stephen Greenberg
Source: https://nihrecord.nih.gov/newsletters/2013/07_19_2013/story3.htm

I have been thinking a lot about how to incorporate images into my work beyond drawing or painting.
Photography is one of the common methods used to record the world around us so I’ve been thinking it would be an ideal medium to express ideas about cataloguing and collecting.

I am curious about the results of recording a specimen or location with a collector/researchers approach and then working with the resulting images from an artists perspective.

When I studied photography at Elam I didn’t really move beyond the darkroom. I think it was the magic of the photographic process more than the taking of images that appealed to me at the time. This exploration is different, the importance of the
initial images are an integral part of the work I
am making.

While researching the Van Dyke Brown printing process I came across Anna Atkins (1799-1871).
Her story is curiously connected to my current
​work, in that she was a woman, botanist and photographer. She was often considered the first person to have published a book illustrated with photographic images and some sources claim that she was the first woman to create a photograph.

Anna Atkins learned directly from William Henry Fox Talbot (a friend of both her father and her husband) about two of his inventions related to photography: the ‘photogenic drawing’ technique (in which an object is placed on light-sensitized paper which is exposed to the sun to produce an image) and calotypes.
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I have been experimenting with the Van Dyke Brown process because I am drawn to it’s hand-made, one-off qualities, the old world charm of the colour and the seemingly magical chemical process which I can manipulate creatively to produce different types of images, like photograms and contact photographs.
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I’m hoping to take the images I produce and add other media and text, building layers of interpretation into the final pieces.
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Cyanotype by Anna Atkins (cc.1840-50's)
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​A first Van Dyke Brown transparency contact print to see if my chemicals were working on the paper
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My first paper negative, taken at Bethells beach
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A test photogram, 4 minutes under afternoon sun
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My first image from a printed transparency negative
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Residency Proposal Overview

14/2/2016

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Why create a catalogue of life?
So we can sustainably use, explore, monitor, manage and protect biodiversity resources
Source: http://www.catalogueoflife.org


While keeping New Zealand native life in the foreground, my objective is to explore ideas around collecting and cataloging as a way of promoting species preservation, and the relationship those practices have with supporting a biodiverse, sustainable future.

I plan to collect and collate so that I have a range of information, imagery and objects that I can translate into works on paper, translating some of them into posters for print and social media distribution that include relevant 
messages and statements, as well as objet d'art that I would hope provide interactive experiences with my chosen subject. To do this I am employing a range of materials and media that are new to me within the framework of my existing experience with painting, photography and graphic design.

The location of Earthskin and it’s surrounds are beneficial for keeping nature and wildlife in mind. I plan to use it as a resource, using my finds in this body of work.

​The Waygood Foundation at Piha is an ideal location for allowing the quiet of meditation, the natural peace of the bush and beach walking to support a creative spirit. I believe the environment I work in and the mindfulness in which I approach my work influences what I produce, which in turn has a direct impact on those who experience the work.


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    Arwen Flowers

    I am very pleased to be participating in a 5 week Earthskin Creative Residency located at the Waygood Foundation in Piha, Auckland, New Zealand.

    This diary aims to document the process, in the hopes that my explorations can encourage and inspire.

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ARWEN FLOWERS – KIWIARTIST