shelagh morgan art

 Narrating the Weed Garden consists of several sets of work including original water colour images, original artists' books and digital prints based on these origials. 

About the project.

I was initially attracted to the idea of this project because of the space created by disinterest. I saw weeds as a non-subject so engaging in a fairly time consuming painting process seemed to have a built in self-reflexive objectivity that was both critical and humorous. My enthusiasm for the plants that are considered to be weeds has shifted slightly through the process. Taking possession of them in this way could be read as writing / narrating place or the science of whereabouts which for me is a an ongoing process of negotiation between self and site.
 

Why weeds? We live on 50 acres of ‘disturbed ground’ on which quite a few of the listed weeds for northern NSW flourish. I am not a passionate gardener so the distinction between what is and what is not a garden, in the European sense, is a fairly blurred line.
 

I am sure that the old timers would have a thing or two to say about how the ‘place has been let go’. Keeping ones paddocks weed free requires consistent work. The increasing number of lifestyle migrations to rural holdings like this one and a lack of weed knowledge no doubt contributes to the large number of plants listed as weeds in this region. Nostalgia could also be seen as a contributing factor; Nostalgia in the sense of homesickness or a desire to remember that results in exotic specimens being lovingly planted and becoming environmental weeds. I planted a Gloriosa superba (an African native) to remember the gardens of my childhood unaware it was listed as a noxious weed.
 

There are some 375 weeds listed as growing in the northern rivers region, of them 100 are
declared noxious and 185 are environmental weeds. My aim is to document all the weeds on our property regardless of their class or status.
 

Weeds are simply displaced plants growing where they are not wanted. They are said to colonise disturbed ground, and are found in wastelands, roadsides, neglected gardens, cracks in the concrete, even the gutters at times! Most are introduced species that jumped ship or escaped the garden.
 

Plants that are considered to be weeds are rarely seen as having much aesthetic value. A weedy garden is considered ‘unsightly’ and they are rarely candidates for flower arrangements. With this in mind, my aim was to make work that drew on the traditional aesthetic of botanical studies and engage in the rich history of an art science collaboration.