Tracey Bush’s 'Nine Wild Plants' project is an ongoing exploration of consumerism and lost knowledge. The project began with an Arts Council funded exhibition in Clerkenwell, London in 2006. and was reviewed in Garageland magazine, published by Transition Gallery. The project was described by Emma Hill in an article for Printmaking Today magazine:
Tracey Bush's Nine Wild Plants involved both research and making and has resulted in a body of work that includes drawings, small sculptures, unique bookworks and an editioned artist's book. Bush's work has often dealt with the impact that man makes on the environment and she began Nine Wild Plants after reading ecological thinkers, including Paul Hawken, who notes that the average Western adult can recognise over 1000 brand names or logos, but fewer than ten local, indigenous plants. Posing the question 'Which nine wild plants could you confidently identify?' Bush began emailing a range of people and collecting their responses. Texts from these email exchanges are reproduced in a small artist's book and form the basis of a series of unique, transparent bookworks that include original line drawings of the plants describe.
Central to the exhibition was a series of nine, large-scale, collages drawings including the stinging nettle, buttercup and poppy. These works interweave a theme of lost knowledge with the rigour of scientific specimens. Bush referred to the Herbarium Handbook as well as to her own observed drawings to make templates for hand-drawn plant silhouettes; she then collaged fragments of found materials illustrating sweet packet, cigarette and fizzy drink logos etc. The combination of austere black line drawing with the attention-grabbing colours and type styles of brand names and packaging is compelling.
A new set of nine wild flower drawings, based on the nine 'most recognised' British wild flowers, was presented in the curated, survey exhibition 'Flowers Forever' at the Kunsthalle Munich 2023.
Please follow this link to learn more Flowers Forever
The exhibition is now touring to:
Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg: October 12, 2024 – January 19, 2025
Il Chiostro del Bramante, Rome: February 14, 2025 – September 14, 2025