Commissioned by Hampshire Cultural Trust for Gosport Museum and Art Gallery
Alien Native is a film installation inspired by our observations of the local biodiversity of the Gosport area following research drawn from Hampshire Cultural Trust’s historic herbarium collection. The title Alien Native combines two terms to describe plant status – alien plants, introduced by human activity, and their native counterparts, which are either indigenous species, or have arrived ‘naturally’ in Britain following the end of the Ice Age.
Responding to the herbarium archive of local specimens, we have identified a selection of common flowers and plants employing them as subject matter to consider the effects of time on the plants’ morphology and movements. The film follows an imaginary and sometimes turbulent journey of a group of alien ‘Dalmatian White’ foxgloves. Passing through a series of environments, they attempt to assimilate with various native and non-native plants as they move towards the realms of the herbarium archive. The characterisation of the plants also suggests a human element to this journey of migration and assimilation.
The work combines ultra high-speed film of scenarios set up in the studio with time-lapse photography and film footage from around Gosport. It is accompanied by a soundscape incorporating recordings made in the field with dissonant and harmonic sounds produced in the studio. Together they create an immersive and otherworldly experience exploring the subtle nature and movements of plant life and our attempts to capture, study and understand it, while challenging ideas around wildness, authenticity and classification.
This work has been commissioned to celebrate the re-opening of Gosport Museum and Art Gallery and has been supported by Arts & Heritage. Link for further details and opening times of the gallery.
Credits:
Film, timelapse and sound by Heinrich & Palmer
High-speed camerawork directed by Heinrich & Palmer and filmed by Will Schryver
Herbarium specimens from the Hampshire Cultural Trust
