SALVAGED RELATIVES LISTENING TO PLANTS

WORKSEXHIBITIONS

19 Jan

Written By Gracia & Louise

Dandelion, Marigold, Sweet Violet

Gracia Haby
Salvaged Relatives, listening to plants
2026

12 individual collages on cabinet cards with pencil and paint additions

A suite of collaged Salvaged Relatives, featuring botanical details from The Book of Flower Studies, created in the workshop of the Master of Claude de France, ca. 1510–1515, on Australian cabinet cards ranging from the late 1880s through to the early 1900s.

The 12 collages feature elements from the following flowers and foliage,
Folio 2: Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica) with a blue, yellow and red butterfly
Folio 3: Marigold (Calendula arvensis) with a blue butterfly
Folio 4: Chicory (Cichorium intybus) with a dragonfly
Folio 6: Dark Mullein (Verbascum nigrum) with a dragonfly
Folio 11: Hazelnut (Corylus avellane) with a jaybird
Folio 12: Red Carnation (Dianthus sp.) with a blue, orange and yellow butterfly
Folio 13: Sweet Violet (Viola odorata) with a dragonfly
Folio 14: Saffron Crocus (Crocus sativus) with a fly
Folio 18: Primrose (Primula vulgaris) with a blue ladybeetle
Folio 19: Common Daisy (Bellis perennis) with a dragonfly
Folio 24: Red Catchfly (Silene dioica) with a dragonfly
Folio 25: Iris (Iris versicolor) with a dragonfly
Folio 28: Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) with a caterpillar
Folio 29: Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) with a blue and orange butterfly
Folio 30: Autumn Buttercup (Ranunculus bullatus) with a holly blue butterfly
Folio 33: Cultivated Daisy (Bellis perennis) with a colourful fly
Folio 37: White Rose of York (Rosa alba) with a stag beetle

The collages, created especially for the forthcoming exhibition, Plant Life, will be exhibited alongside an edition of our artists’ book, Bilateral Symmetry.

“The Book of Flower Studies belongs to what is often dubbed “the last flowering” of northern European manuscript illumination in the medieval tradition. Illuminators working at Tours brought the garden inside to enrich the pages of princely manuscripts. The pages of this book unquestionably provided the models for renderings in several celebrated commissions linked to Claude, Queen of France and to Antoine de la Barre, a prominent ecclesiastic who became Archbishop of Tours. These flowers were painted in witness to their inherent beauty, not gathered merely for their symbolism, nor for their perceived medicinal value. ”

— THE MET

Salvaged Relative listening to Marigold (Calendula arvensis) and Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica) on Elizabeth Street
Salvaged Relatives listening to Marigold (Calendula arvensis) and Chicory (Cichorium intybus) on George Street
Salvaged Relatives listening to Autumn Buttercup (Ranunculus bullatus) and Sweet Violet (Viola odorata) on Rundle Street
Salvaged Relative listening to Iris (Iris versicolor) on Collins Street
Salvaged Relative listening to Chicory (Cichorium intybus) and White Rose of York (Rosa alba) on Queen Street
Salvaged Relative listening to Primrose (Primula vulgaris) and Hazelnut (Corylus avellane)
Salvaged Relative listening to Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) on Collins Street East
Salvaged Relative listening to Sweet Violet (Viola odorata) on Elizabeth Street
Salvaged Relative listening to Common Daisy (Bellis perennis) and Dark Mullein (Verbascum nigrum) on Queen Street
Salvaged Relative listening to Red Carnation (Dianthus sp.) on Bridge Road
Salvaged Relatives listening to Red Catchfly (Silene dioica) and Common Daisy (Bellis perennis) on Hay Street
Salvaged Relative listening to Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) and White Rose of York (Rosa alba)
Salvaged Relative listening to Cultivated Daisy (Bellis perennis) and Red Carnation (Dianthus sp.) on Grosvenor Road

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Plant Life

SOFI BASSEGHI, STEVEN BELLOSGARDO, KRIS COAD, AMBER CRONIN, RHETT D’COSTA, BEVERLY DOWNS, WILLIAM EICHOLTZ, PETER ELLIS, GRACIA HABY & LOUISE JENNISON, CLARE MCCRACKEN & HEATHER HESTERMAN, ANTHEA KEMP, SARA LINDSAY, SALLY MANNALL, JULIE MILLOWICK, BETTY MULA, LAETITIA OLIVIER-GARGANO, PETRA RODGERS, SARAH RUDLEDGE, JASON WATERHOUSE, LISA WAUP, ROSIE WEISS
SATURDAY 24TH OF JANUARY – SUNDAY 1ST OF MARCH, 2026
AN EXHIBITION CURATED BY RHETT D’COSTA, MAGALI GENTRIC, AND JASON WATERHOUSE
STOCKROOM KYNETON, 98 PIPER STREET, KYNETON

The exhibition Plant Life, curated by Rhett D’Costa, Magali Gentric, and Jason Waterhouse, brings together twenty-three artists who draw on the vegetal world to explore a range of ideas, including human/plant relationships, storytelling, beauty, fragility, ecologies and the environment. Utilising the three exhibition spaces at Stockroom Kyneton, this dynamic and ambitious show presents a diverse range of materials and forms, including drawings, paintings, artist books, ceramics, photography, sculpture, video, and performance.

Stockroom Kyneton