Carbon and Cellulose

About

In her series of large-scale drawings of flowering plants that live in the wild, Nicki Rolls seeks to expose the fragility of plant life on our planet. The wildflowers are drawn larger than life, to celebrate the majestic and highlight smaller plants and less prized plants and weeds. In each drawing, the plant’s roots are exposed, revealing their source of life and energy and, paradoxically, their vulnerability and fragility. 

The drawings are all in charcoal – a medium which is friable, vulnerable, and likely to break down into dust and fall off the paper during its life. It is a medium derived from plant carbon and might be seen to represent both the past and the future of the plants under study. Paper is derived from cellulose, also a plant-based material. And so there is a kind of circularity to the drawings which becomes part of the process itself.

The emphasis of this show will partly be on drawing materials and the act of drawing itself so I will be working in the space. The idea is to demonstrate ‘Carbon and Cellulose’ in their rawest forms. I also plan to set up a collaborative space for visitors to make a joint drawing that will hopefully be completed over the week of the exhibition.