Life Support
On 23rd March 2020, in response to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom announced: we must stay at home. Friends and relatives outside households were to be avoided, and daily life was restricted to essential errands, exercise, and medical attention.
During the weeks that followed, Townsend, whose home and urban garden studio is in central Cardiff, began a daily walk in the local park. Blessed by a series of connected green spaces in the Roath district, Townsend could walk for an hour each day. After a long, dark winter, the sun returned and early spring flowers gradually came into bloom. As the fast pace of everyday life slowed to a halt, nature became a solace. Watching the seasons change, observing wildflowers open and close, offered certainty, joy, and hope amid the surrounding turmoil.
While walking, Townsend reflected on those living in cramped inner-city accommodation, without access to this essential “life support” of gardens, parkland, or green space. Townsend documented the wildflowers discovered in photographs and videos, and back in the studio began to recreate them in beeswax. Over time, the sculptures took on a life of their own, forming a deeply personal record of this moment in history and the fluctuating emotions it inspired.
The flowers are isolated within their own air-filled bubbles, enabling them to survive and flourish, yet their twisted roots and curling leaves reveal underlying anxiety and unease. They form a series, intimately linked to one another, supporting each other but separated by glass walls, unable to touch. They embody calmness and contentment, but also solitude and loneliness.
The Life Support series touches on recurring themes in Townsend’s work: what do we truly need to thrive? What should we protect? What is most precious to us in the Anthropocene? Through this series, Townsend invites reflection on the fragility, resilience, and profound value of the natural world.
‘Life Support, March 2020: Primrose, Primula vulgaris.’
Growing in grassy places, woods and hedges, flowering before the trees come into leaf and shade the ground. A last visit to a friend’s house before lockdown. The lawn in her garden is filled with the joyful yellow of primrose flowers. On my walk in the park, I see hundreds more primroses, with each one I think of her.
Materials – Beeswax and paraffin wax, tinned copper wire, silk fabric, tissue paper, cotton thread, artists’ pigments, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. Mounted on a solid, custom CNC lathed 304 stainless-steel base, inside a hand-blown glass orb.
Dimensions – Approx. 33cm diameter
Date – 2020
‘Life Support, April 2020: Wood anemone, Anemone nemorosa.’
Woodland, copses, scrub, hedgerows. One of the first flowers of spring blooming like a galaxy of stars across the forest floor. The roads of the city are quiet and the skies are clear. I hear the rushing water of the stream next to the shady bank of flowers, and the birds singing.
Materials – Beeswax and paraffin wax, tinned copper wire, silk fabric, tissue paper, cotton thread, artists’ pigments, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. Mounted on a solid, custom CNC lathed 304 stainless-steel base, inside a hand-blown glass orb.
Dimensions – Approx. 36cm diameter
Date – 2020
‘Life Support, May 2020: Dog violet, Viola riviniana.’
Deciduous woodland, grassy heaths, old pastures and chalk downs. I spot the beautiful deep bluish violet flowers growing just behind the park railings next to the pavement, I have been waiting all winter for them. Soon there are more, in my own garden growing between the cracks in my patio.
Materials – Beeswax and paraffin wax, tinned copper wire, silk fabric, tissue paper, cotton thread, artists’ pigments, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. Mounted on a solid, custom CNC lathed 304 stainless-steel base, inside a hand-blown glass orb.
Dimensions – Approx. 21cm diameter
Date – 2020
‘Life Support, June 2020: Forget-me-not, Myosotis arvensis.’
Dry habitats, arable soils and dunes. A sea of tiny blue and pink flowers fills the park and my mum’s front garden where we sit at a distance on the wall and chat.
Materials – Beeswax and paraffin wax, tinned copper wire, silk fabric, tissue paper, cotton thread, artists’ pigments, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. Mounted on a solid, custom CNC lathed 304 stainless-steel base, inside a hand-blown glass orb.
Dimensions – Approx. 34cm diameter
Date – 2020
‘Life Support, July 2020: Pyramid Orchid, Anacamptis pyramidalis.’
Grassy habitats, generally rough unimproved meadows and pastures, banks, roadsides. Travel restrictions are lifted and I go further afield to an industrial site, where the pink flower spikes of orchids grow tall and slender underneath the sails of a wind turbine.
Materials – Beeswax and paraffin wax, tinned copper wire, silk fabric, tissue paper, cotton thread, artists’ pigments, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. Mounted on a solid, custom CNC lathed 304 stainless-steel base, inside a hand-blown glass orb.
Dimensions – Approx. 28cm diameter
Date – 2020
‘Life Support, February 2021: Snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis.’
Damp woodland habitats. After the darkest of winters, the snowdrops slowly emerge along the valley road, as we continue to make our weekly journey delivering groceries to our loved ones. They have received their first vaccines and we have hope.
Materials – Beeswax and paraffin wax, tinned copper wire, silk fabric, tissue paper, cotton thread, artists’ pigments, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. Mounted on a solid, custom CNC lathed 304 stainless-steel base, inside a hand-blown glass orb.
Dimensions – Approx. 20cm diameter
Date – 2021
‘Life Support, May 2021: Lesser Celandine, Ficaria verna.’
Deciduous woodland, damp grassy habitats, stream and river margins. Flowers bright glistening yellow, opening only on fine days. More than a year has passed, life is opening up again but I am still walking the pathways of my local park, eyes down, looking for celandines.
Materials – Beeswax and paraffin wax, tinned copper wire, silk fabric, tissue paper, cotton thread, artists’ pigments, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. Mounted on a solid, custom CNC lathed 304 stainless-steel base, inside a hand-blown glass orb.
Dimensions – Approx. 20cm diameter
Date – 2021