Thirteen Flowers suspends a series of embroidered tapestries above the viewer, oscillating in hues of teal, gold and green as one walks through the installation. The imagery is derived from Sara Weis’ (1834?-1904) botanical drawings of flowers which she had observed during psychic, mediumistic visits to an inhabited mars, which she documented through her 1906 Novel, Journeys To The Planet Mars. Weis’ work was made within the context of “Mars Mania”, a societal fascination with the possibility of life on the red planet, a belief sparked following astronomical observations of perceived Martian “canals” at the turn of the century. Evidence of martian irrigation was widely published at the time, and only disproven following Nasa space probe missions in the 1960’s.

Weis’ flowers speak to a belief in the potential for life beyond both this planet and of flight from her contemporaries’ understandings of society, of nature and of death itself. This esoteric hope and the radical history of imagining other worlds is obscured today, the creative energy that such potential alternatives represented has been swept away with subsequent scientific revolutions.

Each flower is embroidered on two-tone dichromatic organza fabrics with a green stitching and a golden organza appliqué. The two tones of the base material create works that morph in appearance with variance to the viewer’s position and their environment, bringing Weis’ imaginary into and out of sight. At times, the surface and the plants are homogeneous, revealing the flora’s outlines. At others, the golden hue of the depicted foliage is brought into sharper focus.

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