Blauwdruk, Tuinen Mien Ruys Dedemsvaart
April 1 - October 31
In the Mien Ruys gardens, The Butterfly Defect shows the start of Louisiana’s search for the Alcon blue, starting in nature reserve Meijendel. In the past 30 years, the Alcon blue population has declined by 93%, making the butterfly critically endangered. The unique life cycle with the blue-belled gentian (in the past in Meijendel also the cross-leafed gentian) and the Common Elbow Red Ant or the Red Ant are a perfect example of connectedness within nature. The butterfly lays its eggs on the flower and when these hatch the caterpillars crawl out and release special scent pheromones. With these pheromones they trick the ants into being one of them. The ants adopt the caterpillars and feed them in their nest. When the butterfly emerges it quickly breaks out and the cycle starts all over again. Louisiana looks for this butterfly and its traces to find out if this form of connectedness can be seen as an example for us humans.
'The Alcon blue is a symbol for the loss of Dutch biodiversity.'
Together with scientists, ecologists and street residents, Louisiana van Onna and Linus Kropp will discuss why we should not lose this butterfly. Want to know more about this? Follow the process of the documentary about the Alcon blue at: www.louisianavanonna.com/hetvlinderdefect
'Bloemversiering'
There's some sort of luck in picking flowers in your own backyard, or at special locations you share deep memories with. We cherish the picked flowers and use it as a pendant. In this work I celebrate the act of memorial with flowers. In collaboration with Jan Dirk Adams I am working on a project on the celebration of common flowers. A table suitable for pressing and drying flowers, made by Jan Dirk, is the start of this project. The flowers are being used for a new series of works in which printed photographs of rare flower herbaria are surrounded by physical dried common flowers. By putting both rare and known flowers in one work I am connecting both the past and the present to highlight the history of Dutch biodiversity and gardening.
During the exhibition, Louisiana organizes Cyanotype workshops in which flowers and plants brought (or picked from Mien Ruys' garden) are used to make blueprints.
The workshops are on the following dates from 10 a.m. to about 2 p.m.:
Saturday 23 April
Saturday 21 May
Saturday 4 June
Saturday 11 June
Blauwdruk, Tuinen Mien Ruys Dedemsvaart
April 1 - October 31
In the Mien Ruys gardens, The Butterfly Defect shows the start of Louisiana’s search for the Alcon blue, starting in nature reserve Meijendel. In the past 30 years, the Alcon blue population has declined by 93%, making the butterfly critically endangered. The unique life cycle with the blue-belled gentian (in the past in Meijendel also the cross-leafed gentian) and the Common Elbow Red Ant or the Red Ant are a perfect example of connectedness within nature. The butterfly lays its eggs on the flower and when these hatch the caterpillars crawl out and release special scent pheromones. With these pheromones they trick the ants into being one of them. The ants adopt the caterpillars and feed them in their nest. When the butterfly emerges it quickly breaks out and the cycle starts all over again. Louisiana looks for this butterfly and its traces to find out if this form of connectedness can be seen as an example for us humans.
'The Alcon blue is a symbol for the loss of Dutch biodiversity.'
Together with scientists, ecologists and street residents, Louisiana van Onna and Linus Kropp will discuss why we should not lose this butterfly. Want to know more about this? Follow the process of the documentary about the Alcon blue at: www.louisianavanonna.com/hetvlinderdefect
'Bloemversiering'
There's some sort of luck in picking flowers in your own backyard, or at special locations you share deep memories with. We cherish the picked flowers and use it as a pendant. In this work I celebrate the act of memorial with flowers. In collaboration with Jan Dirk Adams I am working on a project on the celebration of common flowers. A table suitable for pressing and drying flowers, made by Jan Dirk, is the start of this project. The flowers are being used for a new series of works in which printed photographs of rare flower herbaria are surrounded by physical dried common flowers. By putting both rare and known flowers in one work I am connecting both the past and the present to highlight the history of Dutch biodiversity and gardening.
During the exhibition, Louisiana organizes Cyanotype workshops in which flowers and plants brought (or picked from Mien Ruys' garden) are used to make blueprints.
The workshops are on the following dates from 10 a.m. to about 2 p.m.:
Saturday 23 April
Saturday 21 May
Saturday 4 June
Saturday 11 June