LONDON.- Lyndsey Ingram is presenting Kate Daudy: SUPERBLOOM, the first exhibition of the celebrated British conceptual artist at the gallery. Daudy, who is well known for a practice that encompasses sculpture, textiles, written interventions and large-scale public installations, has filled the gallery with a new body of work that focuses on nature as a metaphor for the state of humanity today.
Daudy’s title SUPERBLOOM refers to a rare botanical phenomenon where whole landscapes are miraculously transformed into sheets of vibrant flowers. A ‘superbloom’ normally occurs once every few decades, when favourable weather patterns coincide and activate dormant seeds. Seeds in the earth, requiring a very specific set of atmospheric conditions, will blossom into flowers in even the most barren of landscapes. Occurrences of superblooms are exceptional events and are evidence of a world outside of our usual experience. Daudy has also been inspired by the work of American poet A.E. Stallings.
Daudy uses the idea of the seed – with all its potential for growth – as a metaphor for how human beings can flourish in the right circumstances. She also examines how a darker side of culture today – of extreme politics, war and natural disasters – can also take root at times of polarised political rhetoric and neglect of the environment. By using seeds as an analogy for human beings, Daudy raises important questions about our origins and our potential as human beings. She invites viewers to reflect on what each of us can contribute towards growing a more harmonious society.
Within the gallery space, Daudy has made a series of sculptures out of rocks, wire, paper globes and porcelain. Taking on the appearance of seeds, they sit floating within the space. Also on display are a series of new drawings and felt panels, the latter of which are made in collaboration with the upholsterer Aidan Lindsay. Multiple ink, felt and watercolour paintings are spread across the gallery’s walls, some of which are made on seed paper, which, when added to water, would grow into small plants.
This exhibition precedes the launch of Daudy’s new city-wide intervention in support of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency mandated to help and protect refugees around the world. Titled ‘The Seeds of Hope’, the project was inspired by Daudy’s observations, made during her time visiting refugee camps, of flowers and plants grown from seeds people took with them upon forced departure from their native countries. On street corners, cafés and public landmarks around London, including Southbank Centre, Borough Market, St James’s Piccadilly, the Garden Museum and the Ismaili Centre, as well as the façade of Lyndsey Ingram, Daudy’s felt découpage flowers and weeds will grow out of cracks and, like flowers, wither and fade over time. This type of large-scale public project is at the centre of Daudy’s practice. Previously, she has embarked on EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED, an ongoing worldwide body of work in collaboration with Nobel Prize-winning physicist Kostya Novoselov, and AM I MY BROTHER’S KEEPER?, an immersive installation about home and identity which has been shown across Europe and at St Paul’s Cathedral, London’s Saatchi Gallery and Manifesta in Palermo, Italy.
Kate Daudy is a British conceptual artist best known for her public interventions and large-scale sculpture. Working across a variety of media, she lives and works in London, UK, and has exhibited worldwide. Daudy has recently been appointed a fellow at Columbia University’s Institute for Ideas and Imagination. This prestigious award allows poets, artists, and composers from around the world embark on their own projects and engage in a year-long dialogue with each other.
