Andromeda Polifolia(Bog Rosemary) Painting

Plant portraits are evoking the genre of portrait, experiment with the exchange of human and plant roles, and the humanization of nature. Reflecting on the centuries old tradition of portrait painting, and on the genre of portrait photography which replaced it in the 19th century, I prepared the “images” of extinct species based on the “Red list” of endangered or extinct Hungarian plants. The portraits of plants appear in smaller or larger frames similarly to family portrait walls, indicating the past of their existence and isolating them from their beholders.The painting technique that evokes hand-tinted photography raises the problem of aestheticisation of nature by humans. With these tools, the artist encourages us to rethink our alienated relationship with nature. My work points at the problem of depriving our natural environment of its lifestyle – and reaches out for their memory.