'Constructed Ecologies" is a group exhibition featuring the mesmerising works of British artists Dolores de Sade and Ralph Kiggell. The event showcases some of their most exclusive etchings, woodblock prints, dioramas and papercuts.
Housed at La Lanta Fine Art Gallery from Jan 8 to Feb 23, the event should appeal to a wide audience with diverse interests.
Based most of the year in the South of Thailand, de Sade resides in Koh Samui while Kiggell lives in Krabi.
Both artists couldn't have picked a better place to call their second home as the region is tropical, with rainforests, limestone hills, islands, beaches and bays, as well as huge areas of land covered in rubber and palm-oil plantations. A perfect place to get inspired.
Works by Dolores de Sade. (Photos Courtesy of Dolores de Sade)
In response to this lush beauty, as well as to the erosion of the tropical ecosystem and the drastic changes brought about by the pandemic and lockdowns, both artists draw attention to nature, by recording and reinterpreting it in a series of constructed ecologies.
Kiggell creates prints and collages of imagined plant species, pieced together as a chimera, like the "lion-goat-snake" monster in Greek myth, from which the term is derived. His process of water-based printmaking uses largely materials drawn from nature -- blocks of wood, mineral pigments and handmade paper from Japan, Korea and reassembles them. In other works, he cuts out plant forms from paper and collages them into larger images. This assembling of pieces mimics the gathering and recording of plant specimens, dried and pressed for scrapbooks, with botanical illustrations or laid out in museum vitrines.
Dolores de Sade also gathers botanical specimens, in her case mainly broken branches and driftwood. In a series of dioramas she recombines these gathered elements with other found objects into imagined settings and hybrid landscapes that contain new meaning and insight. Also showcased are a series of de Sade's exquisitely detailed etchings, using a process popularised by 18th- and 19th-century horticulturalists to record and share their plant knowledge among an international audience of scientists.
Works by Dolores de Sade. (Photo courtesy of Dolores de Sade)
Works by Ralph Kiggell. (Photo courtesy of Ralph Kiggell)
Works by Ralph Kiggell. (Photo courtesy of Ralph Kiggell)
For more information, call 02-050-7882 or email info@lalanta.com. The exhibition can also be viewed at lalanta.com.
