grove (2013)
Pigment print on Archival Art Paper
70 x 172 cm
70 x 172 cm
Several years ago the artist was travelling in the Salento peninsula in Puglia, Italy, and was struck by the close plantings of the olive groves there. The older the trees in particular formed a curious, human-made natural landscape. To her, these ancient groves seemed like a sanctuary, an archetypal landscape with mythic and religious resonance. In the Jewish Cabbala, for example, the olive represents the grist for the mill of life; the olive’s transformation into oil represents the turning of hard life experiences into wisdom, productiveness and a fulfilled life. Over some years visiting the region, the artist chose six olive groves, to revisit and photograph. The oldest grove, near the town of Alessano, was planted close to a thousand years ago, and is listed as a site of cultural heritage by UNESCO.
Burton Taylor has chosen to present the works in Grove in triptychs because it gives a greater feel for the panorama and sense of immersion one has, when standing in one of the groves. Also, the triptychs are not sequential, but made up from different viewpoints within the same grove. She uses this as a way to communicate a dreamlike feeling of remembering, perhaps in an idealised way, the spaces of the groves. Often it is in memory or imagining that we picture something, the reality is usually different of course, but the former is arguably more essential and potent.
It's the artist's aim that by viewing these subjective images, viewers will be prompted to consider human beings ancient connection with the land. Olive trees prosper by being pruned and harvested, so there is a natural and productive inter-dependency between the trees and human beings. In an era when the natural world is under massive pressure from human activity, they are a symbol for the potential rewards for humans if they act as thoughtful stewards of the land.
Burton Taylor has chosen to present the works in Grove in triptychs because it gives a greater feel for the panorama and sense of immersion one has, when standing in one of the groves. Also, the triptychs are not sequential, but made up from different viewpoints within the same grove. She uses this as a way to communicate a dreamlike feeling of remembering, perhaps in an idealised way, the spaces of the groves. Often it is in memory or imagining that we picture something, the reality is usually different of course, but the former is arguably more essential and potent.
It's the artist's aim that by viewing these subjective images, viewers will be prompted to consider human beings ancient connection with the land. Olive trees prosper by being pruned and harvested, so there is a natural and productive inter-dependency between the trees and human beings. In an era when the natural world is under massive pressure from human activity, they are a symbol for the potential rewards for humans if they act as thoughtful stewards of the land.