VIEWS OF NATURE, 2024 (Ongoing)

In my work I explore the interplay of reason and feeling in conveying the natural world. I strongly believe modernity’s rationalisation - categorising, quantifying, and classifying nature - has led to alienation. Man studies, manages, and controls nature, rather than being part of it. Whereas 19th-century scientist Alexander von Humboldt (1769 - 1859) planted the first seeds for ecology as a science, his approach rested on wonder and appreciation for the aesthetic beauty found in the natural world. In his work, Von Humboldt stresses the importance of feeling and imagination in conveying nature. Tirelessly, Von Humboldt studied nature, in awe of complexity and with an eye for aesthetics, emphasising the interconnectedness: the world is a harmonious ecosystem in which everything is interconnected, he argued, and humans endanger this through their actions. Inspired by Von Humboldt's eponymous essays, 'Views of Nature' (2024) visualises his narrative. Using excerpts from his texts as titles and starting points for the works, I visualise what Von Humboldt could only describe through words. By toning cyanotypes - known as a documentation tool for botanists - I resist this rationalisation of nature and illuminate an opposing narrative of mysticism and wonder.

“Nature must be experienced with feeling”, Von Humboldt wrote to Goethe. Scientists who wanted to describe the world exclusively by classifying plants, animals and stones would “never really get to know her”.