Nuala O’Donovan: Banksia Series, 2011-2022
This series is based on drawings of the flowers and seeds of the Banksia plant – native to Australia. The flower consists of masses of are linear petals which form a cylindrical structure. For the Banksia series I used a single petal as the element that the work is based on. The early structures were built as semicircular towers – following the fractal geometric principle of self-similarity – and the forms evolved in order to make the sculptures more structurally stable and counteract/work with the distortions caused by the movement during the high firing process. The pieces are dynamic as they capture and ‘freeze’ this movement creating a sense of fluidity in the finished work. The later pieces experiment with variations in the scale of the elements in the pattern, replicating the transitions in scale and energy of a growing organism.
Captions
- Coral Banksia Hybrid, 2022, Hand built, High Fired stained and unglazed porcelain, 38 x 38 x 24 cm. Photographer: Janice O’Connell
- Bourgeois Banksia, 2017, Hand built, High Fired, stained slip and unglazed porcelain, 32 x 44 cm. Photographer: Janice O’Connell
- Banksia – Escaping Lines, 2015, Hand built, High Fired unglazed porcelain, 52 x 34 & 48 x 32 cm. Photographer: Janice O’Connell
- Coral Escaped Lines & Bone Structure, 2015, Hand built, High Fired, stained, and unglazed porcelain, 52 x 34 & 15 x 15 cm. Photographer: Janice O’Connell
- Banksia Dynamic, 2011, Hand built, High Fired unglazed porcelain, 44 x 44 cm. Photographer: Sylvain Deleu
- Banksia Dancing, 2011, Hand built, High Fired, and unglazed porcelain, 40 x 26 x 40 cm. Photographer: Sylvain Deleu
