Artist Journal - Lloyd Godman

Since 1989 my work had moved away from taking photographs to exploring photosensitivity with photograms. In 1995-6 I realized that plants are actually a form of photography, they use light in the same way as film. I decided to experiment with plants as a form of image making - in a sense SLOW ART!

For more than a decade I had been intrigued by the technologically simple and environmentally sensitive practice of artists like Andy Goldsworthy, Hamish Fulton and Richard Long, and although they do not use light as part of the process to make images, some works, like Goldsworthy's colour spectrum forest leaf arrangements, provide a poignant response to nature's photo reactions. During this time I had also become aware of artists incorporating living plants in their art activity. Activities like Joseph Beuys "7,000 oaks" project in Germany, Ian Hunter's willow to charcoal to willow project in England, Angie Denes "Wheat Field in Manhattan Dump" and Gustav Mahler's "Earth, Poplars, Grass", demonstrated the direct relationship plants can play in contemporary art practice while contributing positive benefits to the environment the works make comment on.

Some of Goldsworthy's works, where he lies on the dry ground during a passing rain or snow shower and later photographs the marks his body has left on the dry area of earth provided the impetus for the hypothesis for my present work proposal. I was engaged by the idea that a simple natural phenomenon could leave such telling yet ephemeral marks on `nature'. I was fortunate to meet Goldsworthy in New Zealand and attend a talk he gave.

From here I began focusing on another natural phenomenon that has been central to my earlier work; light. I began considering the essentiality of light to all life forms on the planet, considering how light reacts in the natural environment through photosynthesis, considering the intermediary part plants play in transferring this energy to usable substances other life forms can access , and considering how this process could be explored in my art practice.

During this time I had also expanded my interest in collecting Bromeliads , (a family of epiphytic plants from South America). I began researching the biotic strategies of these plants, particularly the leaf and inflorescence colour change at flowering, the efficient epiphytic system of water and nutrient gathering and retention, and the relationship of these plants to their ecosystem system.

I concluded that while they provided a suitable living emulsion to investigate the image-forming potential through photosynthesis they also provided a conceptual model to juxtapose epiphytic and parasitic behaviors of various species on the planet.

Bromeliads grow on the wall of the entrance to my house in Brighton. 1990s

As I began work on the project, it became apparent that the process of forming images on the leaves through photosynthesis is incredibly slow, time-consuming and uncertain. (It can take up to several months to form an image while on some plants images of any kind are difficult to attain). Also there was the added complication that the collection of plants requires daily attention and care. While staying in touch with contemporary theory and practice, it became obvious that I had to devote disproportionate research time to biology, botany and horticulture if the project was to succeed.

I began by simply placing a small piece of insulation tape on the leaf, leaving the plant in the light for a few months and then when I removed the tape a change in the pigmentation of the leaf revealed itself.

During this exploration, I became aware of the work by English artists Heather Ackoryd and Dan Harvey, where they project UV light onto sprouting grass seed to produce images. I have since corresponded with them about the similarity of our work and in reply, they mentioned that while they had considered the photogram technique, they had never found time to implement it, and wished me well with the project.

During the the initial phase of the project, I also investigated two other potentials using the expanding plant collection. The first was the use of the collection of bromeliads to explore the visual incongruity between the in/organic when they were installed in various unfamiliar locations like industrial sites and museum cases.

The second was the idea of connecting the plants to sensitive electronic devices to record their response to the a changing environment around them and in turn use this response to drive other electrical devices within a gallery context. While his aspect of the work is still under exploration and some progress has been made, it has not progressed enough at the present time.

Electromagnetic radiation (Light) is essential to sustaining life on the planet Earth, and the ability of plants to photosynthesize is a crucial factor in the transference of this energy. Archimedes 287?B.C. 212 first noted aspects of the pigmentation change in plant tissue due to exposure to sunlight and since then photosynthesis has been central to much speculative and scientific investigation.

But light is also central to sight, and as such is as essential to the visual arts as it is to the life process. As far back as prehistoric times, the power of light from the sun was recognized and became an integral part of ritual and image culture, became a central icon that crossed generations and race, became the centre of myth and religion and became the centre of life. The Greeks, Empedocles, Leucippus and Democritus were among the first to contribute documented theories on light, and the fascination to explain the phenomenon and its meaning have continued for centuries.

Until the 1920s, many artists produced representations of light, but from the 1920s there was a distinct difference: Man Ray, Moholy Nagy, El Lissitzky, Len Lye and others initiated contemporary investigations into light itself as a valid medium for art making, an investigation which has continued in various forms through the century to the present day by artists like Ralph Hotere, Christian Boltanski.

My interest in the theme for this project came from the conceptual amalgamation of two long held personal activities that employ light:

*the process of growing plants (which I had engaged in since 1973, but previously only as a botanical endeavor)
*and that of photography. (Which has been central to my work since 1974)

As part a beginning point of my MFA I engaged in exploring these photosynthetic images. However my supervisor was very unsympathetic and strong suggested I move away from this work and explore installations and light.

I did move from creating these ephemeral photosynthetic images and concluded the MFA with the enLIGHTen project, but I consider the idea still has huge potential and intend to explore it further at some point.

Experiments with scratching through the trichome layer with alchemic symbols 1996