Solastalgia Flora:
Exploration to Extinction

Site-specific installation, 20 ft (6 m) corridor for a hotel in South Kensingon, London. Solastalgia Flora was introduced during Frieze London 2018; the installation will be on display for several years, and is open to the public.

Solastalgia Flora visualises our threatened global biodiversity, immersing viewers in landscapes of densely-collaged flora interrupted by silhouettes of extinct & endangered species. An ecological utopia of abundance conveys the interdependence of biodiversity; the black silhouettes underscore the false illusion of limitless global resources. The aesthetic is both nostalgic & hyper-modern, conveying irreparable environmental losses alongside a contemporary imperative to reevaluate our relationship to the natural world. The black silhouettes are a reference to Victorian portraiture & nineteenth-century plant exploration. Gilt frames extend the visual nostalgia, a commemoration and a reference to a wall of family portraits.

Each of the black silhouettes represents a species of extinct or endangered flora, and are accompanied by an information panel including the plant name, native ecology, and ecological pressures. I chose black silhouettes as a visual cue for absence in the landscape, and as a reference to Victorian portraiture and nineteenth century plant exploration, a period during which species traveled the globe and luxurious images of flora were fetishized.

“Laurent’s immersive installation transforms the conventions of portraiture and the silhouette to narrate the extinction of plant life, capturing a key feature of the Anthropocene: it is, ‘first and foremost, about death on an unimaginable scale”

— Jessica White & Gillian Whitlock, from the introduction to ‘Life Writing in the Anthropocene’, a special issue of a/b: Auto/ Biography Studies. The installation was a visual metaphor for the collection of essays, and featured on cover.

… The force of Laurent’s portraits [suggest] the importance of artistic practice, as well as scholarly theory, in expanding thinking on life matters and life writing.”

— Jessica White & Gillian Whitlock, ‘Life Writing in the Anthropocene’

The black silhouettes are highlighted by gilt frames, emphasizing the portrait presentation and nostalgia for the nineteenth century adoration of flora, and perceived ecological abundance. Dried seed heads and leaves, spray painted gold, are wound around the frames, plunging from the walls as preserved relics and invitations to engage.