Factory Weaving
Seaweed, polyester thread, monofilament, varnish, adhesive
2018

Factory Weaving
Seaweed, polyester thread, monofilament, varnish, adhesive
2018

Plein Soleil, Inverted Garden Suspension, 01 — Factory Weaving (detail)
Seaweed, polyester thread, monofilament, varnish, adhesive
2018

Factory Weaving (detail)
Seaweed, polyester thread, monofilament, varnish, adhesive
2018

Factory Weaving (detail) — Walking with flowers
Inkjet prints on paper, wheat paste
2017-present

Walking with flowers
Inkjet prints on paper, wheat paste
2017-present

Walking with flowers
Inkjet prints on paper, wheat paste
2017-present

Plein Soleil, Inverted Garden Suspension, 01
Digital photograph
2017

Cara Lasell Bonewitz

My work examines the manner in which dominant attitudes about the natural world shape one’s personal experience of an environment and sense of self. Researching a range of historical trends in naturalism and art, such as botanical gardens, Victorian seaweed collections, and pressed flowers, I appropriate historical methods of collecting, documenting, and display with an interdisciplinary approach that highlights links between artistic and scientific spheres. The ambiguous realm between aesthetic arrangements, art, technology, and scientific order inspires my artistic practice and influences my personal identity as an artist, collector, scientist, and researcher.
Central to this exploration is my personal response to environment and location. I am especially concerned with what contributes to different senses of place—both in terms of what a place is and what it is not. Presences and absences are felt simultaneously, and an object’s past and future journeys are essential to its present iteration.