Exhibition overview: Amélie and Agata Engelman share a passion for examining aspects of today’s plants and their supporting landscape/environment along with a concern over the consequences of human legacy and climate change. Elli Lestas’ work also responds to landscape, exploring pattern and uncertainty theories as they apply to the natural world and to the energy of creativity. All three have very different backgrounds and work in different media, but their focus on the environment and place makes obvious a strong connection across all the work.
Amélie Beaudroit challenged herself in January 2017 to draw a wildflower daily, starting a year-long process of reflection on time and mortality and links to our consumerist behaviour. The act of drawing spurred her to think of her own ecological imprint and see what she could do to reduce it. To her, the drawings are a reminder of our legacy to the planet and a gesture to become more aware of what we leave behind.
Agata Engelman uses her work to engage in stories of hope and despair, of difficult relationships humans have with their environment and with one another. These stories pose questions about our pasts and futures, looking at the human influence on the planet, equalled by our fragility and weakness in the face of geological forces. She asks, finally, who the anthropos actually is.
Elli Lestas opens herself to her surroundings and experiences, then documents them using memory, senses, photography and drawing. Influences include all aspects of the natural world but with particular attention to seeds, birds and landscapes supported by the theories of fractals, morphic resonance and cymatics. Recent work consists of combining her photographs with images of her drawings through an awareness of an essence or energy, that transfers from one to the other.
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