Robert Fenton - Winner
Item# 1770, Florilegium | 2015 | oil on linen on board | 133 x 92 cm
Sunshine Coast Art Prize 2015 – Winner
[Image courtesy of the artist]
Robert Fenton | Item# 1770, Florilegium | 2015 | oil on linen on board | 133 x 92 cm
Artist Statement
Item #1770, Florilegium is a record of the monumental botanical collections made by Sir Joseph Banks and his team of naturalists aboard James Cook's Endeavour, 1768-1771. In mid-1770 Sir Joseph Banks added to this collection with the flora, plants collected from the now named Sunshine Coast. Culture is moving fast and people seem to be disconnected from nature. By hanging the plants upside down and by placing the flora in plastic it is about seeing this flora as a new species as Banks would have done in 1770. It may be wrong and mixed up but it still has that bright and beautiful presence that discovery has.