London-based artist Elaine Duigenan’s painstaking process to create the body of work “Blossfeldt’s Apprentice” required two key elements: twist ties and a camera. The project is named for German artist Karl Blossfeldt, whose renderings of plant-life in the 1920s inspired this series by Duigenan. Blossfeldt famously said, “the plant must be valued as a totally artistic and architectural structure.”
Duigenan seems to agree, her meticulous creations mimicking flora while maintaining an almost alien quality, due to the materials. The black backdrop offers a stunning view at the works’ detail and the specific texture. Still, the stems seem, at first, somehow organic in nature. Represented by Klompching Gallery in New York, Duigenan’s artist statement describes both the simplicity and complexity of her current series and other work: “Elaine’s work takes a close look at objects. Things are never quite what they seem and her work is pared down to find singular beauty. Pale specimens glow in inky black spaces and appear to hang by a thread. There is strength and fragility, perfection and imperfection.”
Her work is part of collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Fine Art in Houston, Texas, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and the collection of Frazier King.
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