Reflecting on paradise lost
Myfanwy Macleod, a Canadian artist of Welsh and Scottish descent, explores our relationship with the natural world in a new exhibition at Chapter, Cardiff – her first in Wales...
THE centrepiece for the Botanist, a new exhibition at Chapter in Cardiff, is Fallen, a monumental wooden sculpture depicting Adam and Eve with fruit at their feet in the Garden of Eden, with the Tree of Knowledge felled behind them.
This symbol of paradise lost sets the scene for a show that explores humans’ impact on the natural world.
The show is the work of Myfanwy Macleod, a Canadian artist of Welsh and Scottish descent. She has previously exhibited in Canada, Australia, the United States and Europe, but this is her first show in Wales.
For the exhibition she’s used a bold array of mediums and methods, including 3D printing, casting, hand-carving and hand-painting to explore our relationship with plants such as the apple, the tulip, cannabis and the potato.
Pink Rot, for example – an installation of identically cast potatoes – highlights the impact of intensive, monocultural farming on soil erosion and biodiversity, while Figure Of Woman, a flag bearing an emblem of intertwined tulips, references allegorical artworks created by Dutch Golden Age painters amid tulip mania in Holland during the 1630s – a resonant example of human commodification of plant life.
While humans have a history of exploiting nature, Macleod is keenly aware of the intensifying ecological crisis during our time.
“This exhibition was conceived of during a time of intense socio-political turmoil exacerbated by a worldwide pandemic,” she says. “These events made the world acutely aware of the vulnerability of humans and nature. It explores the idea of the denatured landscape from a feminist perspective.
“I live and work in Canada where the landscape and natural resources are a key part of our national identity. While I have explored these themes in previous works throughout my career, I felt it was important to draw attention to ecological and environmental issues in a more explicit way and that would speak to the complex and often troubled relationship between humans and plants and how their histories intertwine.”
In terms of technique, Macleod is particularly interested in how casting and 3D printing have the ability to reproduce the same object over and over again and how this relates to a work made entirely by hand.
“These kinds of processes reflect or mirror the ways in which we also relate to plant life through cloning, grafting, genetically modifying,” she says.
A case in point is Mothership, her seductive 3D-printed sculpture of a cannabis bud of an elite clone. Elite clones are special female cannabis plants that marijuana growers discovered and kept alive in clone form. Commercial cannabis plants are all genetically female, cannabis plants don’t declare their gender until they’re mature.
The solution is to plant clones instead of seeds – cuttings taken from the established female ‘mother’. Plants replicate and challenge the hierarchies of human life and Macleod’s Mothership considers how gender has been cultivated to serve our desire for altered states.
“I hope this exhibition will encourage people to learn about the world around them and to consider the world from a plant’s perspective,” she says.
“I am thrilled to be having my first exhibition in Wales and especially honoured that it should take place at Chapter Arts Centre. My mother grew up in Wales before moving to Canada after World War II, so it’s amazing to have this opportunity.”
■ Myfanwy Macleod: The Botanist runs at Chapter until September 24
ENVIRONMENTAL themes take centre stage in the latest production by Cardiff-based theatre company Triongl, which is touring Wales in May and June. Triongl are Valmai Jones, Rebecca Knowles and Rebecca Smith-williams – and all three founding members appear in the play.
Jones has been acting, writing and directing for 40 years. She was a founding member of Theatr Bara Caws and played Enid in the hit TV series Hinterland. Knowles, originally from Edinburgh, has been based in Cardiff since 2001, working on stage, screen and radio, and Smith-williams, originally from Aberystwyth, has worked widely in the theatre and worked to devise new work – including this latest production, Tree.
Tree was written by Smith-williams, with support and additional writing by Jones and Knowles. The trio have enjoyed working together since they met in 2013 as freelance actors on a production at Chapter Arts Centre titled Who Killed The Elephant.
“We found that despite our performance styles being quite different, we had a shared theatrical outlook as well as social values,” says Knowles. “Put simply, we had fun working together and we often found ourselves making each other laugh but also discussing the issues of the day quite passionately and at great length. Much like how we create our plays.”
All their productions are conceived and created through a group effort: “We come together and exchange ideas and finding what appeals to all three of us,” says Knowles. “We then make the story together and Rebecca Smith-williams goes and scripts it.
“We look to create theatre that engages with socially-relevant themes, but in a fun, accessible and sometimes quirky way. We feel that art is a great way to explore issues that are important in people’s lives and laughter is a really useful tool to process this – we see the laughter like the oil that makes the wheels of a good conversation turn.”
Tree is a thoughtful bilingual comedy exploring the complexities of climate activism and asking how we can save our communities as well as the planet.
The story centres around an environmental activist who takes the local councillor hostage to try to stop the local authority from cutting down a