Florilegium No. 1400
Serial No. 1400
2004

Florilegium

Between 1768 and 1771 the naturalist Joseph Banks accompanied Captain James Cook on a voyage of discovery, his first to Australia, seeking, at each landfall, plants never before seen by European eyes. He called the collected drawings of these wonders "Florilegium".

The beauty, the menace and the exquisite engineering of these quasi-biological forms attract me. This series shares with most of my work a visual ambiguity - the subject appears to be one thing, but may (or may not) be another. These images, composed of surgical instruments, are a departure from my fascination with the identity of others.

They arise, instead, from my own past, which may be behind me but is inescapable.