SHEZAD DAWOOD

The various textile paintings, a sound score, the accompanying scent, and the ceramic work act as various ways for humans and technology (from the human hand’s connection with the paint brush and clay to AI scent generators and plant communication) to consider new ways to interface with nature and technology, and to understand the fluidity between them. The sound score is derived from field recordings of electrical frequencies generated by trees and flowers, and the scent that permeates the exhibition is an equal combination of natural and AI-generated floral notes. These have been influenced by, and in turn have influenced the choice of plants that make up the garden, exploring an idea of dispersal and species that transgress national boundaries like seeds floating in the mist.

Each painting and its framing, as well as the vintage rallis on which they sit, explore a history of the representation of flowers from botanical illustration to the works of Georgia O’Keeffe, Furuya Kōrin and Benode Behari Mukherjee. The picture plane is disrupted by framing devices and geometric pattern to hint at an interior and exterior architecture, in which these individual specimens exist both within and out of time simultaneously. Delicate application of paint, artful colour shading and gradients, lovingly explore each as individual life forms, while negotiating the emergent reality principle between painting and digital modes of recreating reality.

The subtle poetics of these works is also inspired by the passing of time and reflections on nature that underscore Murasaki Shikibu’s 11th Century masterpiece: The Tale of Genji (widely considered to be the world’s first novel), such as:

‘New grass, you don’t even know where to sprout and grow. How can I, a drop of dew, vanish away in the air leaving you alone?

‘And equally James Lovelock’s reflections on nature and technology in his late 2019 work: Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence:

‘The experience of watching your garden grow gives you some idea of how future AI systems will feel when observing human life.’

*Ukiyo-e, the floating world, takes its name from the Buddhist term, ukiyo, which expresses the notion of the fleeting nature of life. During the Edo period this notion was celebrated as an imaginary universe in contrast to the humdrum of everyday obligation.