VIVIENNE SCHADINSKY

North House Gallery is delighted to present an extensive exhibition of work by Vivienne Schadinsky, a London-based Swiss artist drawing attention to endangered, and already extinct, flowers and food plants as well as other crucial environmental concerns and, on the other hand, celebrating small seasonal changes.

In her series Sunrise–Sunset, Vivienne paints threatened flowers in Japanese black ink (sumi-e), the tonal values of which allow an elegaic, evanescent quality to the works. This series is a call to appreciate the fragile beauty of the natural world and a call to arms, to act before it is too late.

Equally, if not more, important is the disappearance of plants and fungi crucial to our food chains and medicines. Vivienne became aware of endangered plants in the food chain through the Slow Food movement and continues to follow scientific research on these issues. Again in black ink, in her Magic Hour series, she paints plants such as wild coffee, borlotti beans, truffles, cacao and avocado.

Another ongoing project is Twelve in which she documents flowers as they appear over the course of twelve months. Inspired by the Japanese 72 microseasons, each one divided into five day sections, invented in 1685 by the Japanese astronomer Shibukawa Shunkai, she again uses the sumi-e tradition to observe the gradual daily changes in familiar flowers such as cherry blossom, crocuses, daffodils and tulips.

Vivienne also uses a range of printmaking techniques for different projects: monoprints from pressed flowers, drypoints of water patterns and etchings with chine-collé for her series sine aqua non vita (without water there is no life).

Vivienne Schadinsky, born in Switzerland, started her career as an interior designer and after moving to London designed sets, first for the theatre and then for film and television. She became a full time artist over a decade ago. She continues to be inspired by Nature in her work but also to research the natural in her food and life. Her researches on biodiversity loss are supported by scientific advice from an expert in the field at Kew and the Millennium Seed Bank in Wakehurst.