ARTIST STATEMENT: LEAH SOBSEY
"The Fall of the Leaf"
The four “portraits” in the series The Fall of the Leaf represent specimens in the most severe decline and incorporate both cyanotype and gold leaf as a way to elevate the plants, honor the specimens, and preserve what we have lost. The reflective surface of the gold acts as a mirror, allowing the viewer to see themselves in the artwork and the world around them. Similar to 19th century oval gilded portrait paintings, the cyanotypes are printed directly onto glass in reference to glass plate negatives from the mid 1800’s.
The specimens for the plant portraits are, from left to right: Whorled Milkwort Polygala verticillata HUH #GH872395 Blue-bead Lily Clintonia borealis HUH #GH01083896 Woodland Sunflower Helianthus divaricatus HUH #GH872840 Wavy Leaf Aster Symphyotrichum
Sobsey’s multidisciplinary photographic practice reaches into the fields of science, design, installation and textile. Her photo-based work explores the natural world through archives and taxonomies with an experimental and materials-based approach to the medium of photography. Often partnering with scientists, she uses a historical, scientific, and artistic lens, to understand the connection to plant and animal loss as one indication of the larger climatological perils we face as a species.
She is interested in creating dialog between art and science and has spent the last decade-plus photographing specimens from National Park and University museum collections across the country to understand climate change and species loss. Sobsey works in 19th-century photographic processes combined with digital technology with a specialty in plant-based printing techniques.
In this exhibition, as an homage to 19th century photographer and botanist Anna Atkins, she focuses on cyanotype, a 19th century photographic process that relies on UV light to create a distinctive Prussian blue tone.
In 1842, Sir John Herschel developed the cyanotype process, a photographic printing process that produces a cyanblue print. It employs two chemicals, ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, to produce an image. Some of the earliest cyanotypes were created in 1843 by British botanist, Anna Atkins. Often considered the world’s first female photographer, Atkins produced the scientific reference book, British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. This seminal publication was one of the first uses of light-sensitive materials to illustrate a book. The cyanotype method was used to create the book’s traditional letterpress prints and handwritten text, as well as its illustrations. Atkins printed and published Part 1 of British Algae in 1843 and in doing so established photography as an accurate medium for scientific illustration.
“Swarm” and "When I am Among Trees"
Leah Sobsey’s large-scale cyanotype installation incorporates plant and insect specimens from North Carolina State University’s vast collections.
The focal species in Swarm: The Blue of Distance were once common in North Carolina but are now imperiled, or in some cases locally extinct, due to habitat loss and climate change. To call attention to the importance of these insects in our changing ecology, this artwork consists of hundreds of cyanotype insects, including the frosted elfin butterfly, giant silkmoth, and rusty patched bumble bee, which were once abundant across North Carolina. They are united here in a swarm of fragility.
When I am Among Trees focuses on the longleaf pine, a species that was once abundant across the southeastern United States. The longleaf pine savanna is now one of the most endangered ecosystems in North America due to development, fire suppression, and overexploitation. Sobsey traversed the Boyd Tract old-growth forest in Weymouth Woods in Southern Pines, North Carolina. to photograph the oldest living longleaf pine in the world, which is a staggering 477 years old. The specimens depicted in the understory include the pitcher plant and rough-leaved loosestrife, which reflect plant loss from the mountains to the sea, displaying species in severe decline from each region of North Carolina.