A slow, meandering walk. A flowered path stretching out ahead. Breathing in saturated air, dog days just around the bend. Rays of sun graze the treetops, a fiery ornament hung from space. Your pulsing body, a byproduct of this raw nature, a phenomena in itself.

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Floribunda is Latin for “freely flowering”.

 

It is a type of rose that blooms in robust clusters, with buds spilling over each other and thriving in the sunlight. The natural abundance of the summer has compelled humans to exceed worldly limitations for eons. Incredible monuments (The Great Pyramids and the Sphynx, Stonehenge, Temple of Kukulcan) have been erected and lasting mythologies (Midsommar, Myth of Clytie) crafted to harness and preserve, even if only for a fleeting moment, the sacredness of this time.

 

As the summer solstice approaches, Rebecca explores our modern relationship to this mystical period of abundance in Floribunda with its roots in the sky, a site-specific land art project. Translucent fabric, shell “nodes”, and petal trail markers are conduits for our own contemplation. How one situates themselves amongst these works dictates the experience they will have and energy that will flow between themselves and the environment.

 

Just as the solstice marks a time where the invisible barrier between the spiritual and corporal realms diffuses, Floribunda exists as a destination outside of the physical world. Fabric imprinted with chlorophyll, rainwater, the glow of the full moon and sleep float amongst the brush, beckoning viewers to experience the last trickle of sun from its perspective. Flower petals create paths sprinkled with nodes that glimmer and grow from mossy tree stumps. The works form their own ecosystem, flourishing and interacting harmoniously with the elements.

 

The wanderers journey reaches its apex at Three Sleeps in Pink, a hand-sewn fabric dyed subconsciously with imprints of the artist’s body. Developed while in residence at Duplex AIR in Libson, Portugal, this work embodies the dissolving boundary between the real and surreal, inviting viewers into an in-between space to relish in a moment of pure escapism.

 

Floribunda with its roots in the sky marks a departure from Rebecca’s formal practice as a painter. She has created an oasis amongst the mundane where passersby becomes performer, exploring the boundary dissolution between their body and the space it inhabits on Earth.

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-Jaime Abrusci