- Title: Water table
- Artist: Winsome Jobling
- Region: Darwin
- Art Centre: Independent artist
- Medium: Work in paper
- Collection:
- Dimensions: 42 x 60 cm
- Edition Size: Unique
- Price ($AUD): $ 920 mounted
Artwork Story
Drypoint on handmade pigmented, poured and stencilled cotton pulp paper.
In this series of works in handmade paper Winsome Jobling explores Ground as the surface of the earth, the roots, the soil, the substrate for plant growth, and life on the planet.
We stand on it, we own it, we grow food in it and we treat it like dirt.
The ground influences plant biodiversity, ecosystem function and stability.
The interface between plant roots and the soil is called the rhizosphere, a place where complex biogeochemical process influence local and global landscape.
These interactions are essential for the sustainable production of food, fuel and fibre that support the growing world population on a dwindling supply of fertile, arable land.
Roots serve many functions for a plant including anchorage, and acquisition of vital nutrients and water necessary for growth.
There is evidence that plants can ‘sense’ the presence of nutrients through their roots and share their ‘find’ with other plants.
Plant root structures are mimicked by the branching structure of plants above the ground, the bifurcation of river systems form the source to the sea and the pathways of the blood; veins and arteries in our bodies. Family trees follow the same branching patterns and link us to our beginnings. The tree of life.
Throughout the development of this body of work the handmade paper Ground became more suggestive and experimental. The papermaking ‘set the scene’ for the print plate vocabulary. The Ground for my prints is to me the most important part of the work.
Winsome Jobling 2016