HYDROPHILIA
Susie Althorp
Althorp works across the disciplines of science and art using an experimental approach often drawing on natural history and childhood memories such as beachcombing to construct narratives about the human condition and ecological environments. With the curiosity of an amateur naturalist, botanical specimens are collected and examined closely with attention to form, texture, pattern, and colour to inform and add layers of dialogue to works. A recent focus has been on algae, with macro species of seaweed and the invisible microscopic world. She seeks to create a greater connection between the view and nature, prompting them to slow down and look closer. Her works facilitate a space for reflection, often accessing the sublime to interrogate the contemporary world accelerating its pace with technology.
Mirjana Dobson
I believe that the natural world is not only an inherent part of us as humans, and we of it, but that it is a mirror in which we can find our inner self reflected. My practice has always been an act of reverence to our natural world. There is an element of science to it, in my need to study and observe; to learn and to understand.
But there is also an element of spirit too, in the continual grasping for something that is just beyond the visible. My work has continually sought to impart to the viewer a desire for understanding Nature, with the equally powerful experience of connecting to it.
We often forget that we are part of Nature, and that Nature is not something separate to us.
