‘Life Support’ Series
Materials: Beeswax and mixed media
On 23rd March 2020 in response to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic, the prime minister of the United Kingdom announced in a live television broadcast the following instruction: we must stay at home. We should not meet friends or relatives who did not live in our homes, we should only leave home for very limited purposes, to buy food, medicine, to exercise once a day or seek medical attention.
During the weeks and months that followed, Townsend, who’s home and urban garden art studio is situated in the centre of Cardiff, began to walk once a day in the local park. Blessed by a series of joined areas of parkland just outside her doorstep in the Roath district of the city, she was able to walk for an hour each day. After a long dark and wet winter, the sun shone and the early spring flowers slowly but surely came into bloom. As the fast pace of everyday life slowed to a halt, nature was a solace, as it was for so many others at this time of national and global crisis. Watching the seasons change and the wildflowers open and close, gave a certainty, joy and hope when all around was in turmoil. Day after day the news filled with reports of illness, tragedy and the loss of so many lives but the green spaces and daily interaction with the natural world, lifted spirits. Whilst walking, thoughts turned to those living in cramped inner-city accommodation without access to this essential ‘life support’ of nature within a garden, parkland or green space.
Townsend documented the wildflowers discovered during those daily walks in a series of photographs and videos and when back in the studio began to recreate the flowers from beeswax. As the sculptures developed, they took on their own life and became a very personal record of this moment in history, illustrating the fluctuating and contradicting feelings that she experienced.
The flowers are isolated and confined within their own bubbles filled with air, enabling the plants to survive and even flourish with beauty, but their twisted roots and curling leaves tell the story of an underlying anxiety and uneasiness. They are part of a series, intimately linked to one another in a time and place, supporting each other but separated by glass walls, unable to touch. They illustrate calmness and contentment but also solitude and loneliness.
The ‘Life Support’ series touches on the recurring themes of Townsend’s earlier works addressing key questions. What do we really need to thrive? What should we protect? What precious things are of the greatest importance to us in this era of the Anthropocene?
The Life Support series was represented by Ruup & Form in ‘Meditation in Materials’ at Collect, International Art Fair for Contemporary Craft and Design 2021, ‘Inspirit’ at Artefact, Chelsea Harbour, and Eye of the Collector, Two Temple Place, London.
The Life Support series was also selected for discussion at the VIP ‘Collect Selects: Textiles and New Materials’ talk, in association with the V&A and RCA .
‘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