Flo(ra)tilla: A natural and not-so-natural history
Commission for Dawe's Twineworks
Od Arts Festival
​May 2023

To think that here is a plant which brings Egypt in close proximity to Italy! - so much so, in fact, that Galerius and Balbillus,
both of them prefects of Egypt, made the passage to Alexandria from the Straits of Sicily, the one in six days, the other in five! …
Only to think, in fine, that that which moves to and fro, as it were, the various countries of the earth, should spring from a seed so minute,
​and make its appearance in a stem so fine, so little elevated above the surface of the earth!
​
-Pliny the Elder, on the marvels of flax and its use in making sails for ships

Flo(ra)tilla: A natural and not-so-natural history was commissioned by Dawe’s Twineworks and the Od Arts Festival for the Twinework’s 100m Victorian ropewalk. The region around the Twineworks (West Coker in East Somerset) was famous for growing flax for many centuries and had a booming industry in the production of sails, rope and twine for ships. ’Coker canvas’ eventually became the exclusive material used for the sails of the British Navy. This large-scale, multi-media installation looks at how these huge ships were made from plants (flax and also trees for the body and masts of the boats) and then how these vessels were involved in transporting all kinds of plant species around the world during the colonial era. While plants have always been on the move in slower ways, this major relocation of plant species in a few short centuries had positive and negative outcomes on biodiversity which affects our ecosystems today. The installation begins with a ship riding a sea of flax and a video narrated with Pliny's words on flax, written 2,000 years ago, in which he presciently cautions against the 'audacity of man'. The Flo(ra)tilla continues throughout the 100m space with different chapters and stories along the way...

Sailing on a flaxen sea (2023) mixed media installation

(Click on images below to see larger versions)