Field Notes - A Creative Symbiosis

The Geoff Wilson Gallery is hosting a pioneering exhibition, signifying the coming together of two NorthTec departments to produce an exhibition of student work that documents and interprets a variety of New Zealand native flora.

Described as a “creative symbiosis”, the Field Notes exhibition consists of work by both arts and science students exhibited together. Teams of students from the two departments have contributed drawings and pressed plants, to be displayed alongside.

Arts student Alanah Stigsdottir said: “It’s often our preconception that art and science work in isolation. This exhibition approaches issues, observations and study practices that relate and connect to the links between art and science. It challenges and reveals the misconceptions of keeping the two subjects apart.

“In this exhibition the pressed specimens and illustrations hang side by side. It is at this point that nature, science and art all meet.”

The main gallery has become a herbarium, showcasing the Environmental Management students’ native plant collection, and the Bachelor of Applied Art students’ botanical illustrations and creative interpretations.

The exhibition opens on Wednesday, 1 August, from 4pm to 6pm, and runs until Thursday, 30 August. Gallery hours are Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 10am to 4pm.

Cover image:
FiveFinger - Chris Boyes and Joanna Skyrme