Growing, Going, Gone

During the last weeks at the Conservancy, Cornelius drew directly onto prepared copper plates weighed down by the knowledge that this lush ecosystem was going to be destroyed.

Cornelius enacted a ritual of bequeathing a form of immortality as she sat for hours in the presence of these magnificent plants, visually recording her strong emotional connection to this place, absorbing the energy of these living things and preparing for the inevitable emptiness and void which followed the final closing of the doors, locking her out on the final frigid April evening.

Cornelius brought the copper plates on which she had drawn, back to the studio where she applied the electro-etching process to simultaneously alter both the negative and positive plates using electricity, water and sulphate.

The positive plate produces a nuanced, tonally rich commemorative image while the negative plate presents a slightly out of focus, dark, brooding alteration of the image mirroring a sense of vulnerability, grief and loss. Cornelius further marked and stained the rag paper with the life-juice of plants and integrated graphite drawing with the electro-etched images in an effort to process the finality of loss.

Integrating original drawing on rag paper with the original prints is new territory for me, forcing me out of my comfort zone and allowing me to translate my emotional response using direct markings onto the paper.

Towards the end of the life of the conservancy, many people came to say goodbye. Often someone joined Cornelius on the bench. Inevitably they would start to speak and share with her a story of how much the Conservatory meant to them.

There were older folks who had been coming to the conservatory for years and were now bringing their grandchildren to say goodbye. There were young couples and older couples whose marriages had been witnesses by these silent jungle trees. A young mother-to-be came to share the sense of peace and tranquillity with her unborn child. There were people who hail from tropical climates who came to experience a moment of connection through memory and physical sensation.

The space was filled with a deep sadness, melancholic stillness, disbelief, and a general foreboding of an inevitable end. It was a reminder of our own finitude, our own personal mortality and our own final goodbye.

During the last days, people left messages and small sticky notes. As the final closing drew near the notes started migrating into the jungle gently secured to branches and tree trunks bearing messages of memory, sadness and longing, reminders of not only the demise of this ecosystem but our own mortality.