In May of 2023, Flamingo Gardens had the pleasure of hosting artist Sharon Lee Hart for a photo shoot of some of our rehabilitated animals, particularly those species that are endangered or at-risk.
Sharon Lee Hart is a South Florida-based artist currently exploring ecology, ephemerality, and time through experimental and cameraless photography. While maintaining an active studio practice, Hart serves as an Associate Professor of Art at Florida Atlantic University. With an environmental focus, she has also served as an artist-in-residence at Joshua Tree National Park (Joshua Tree, CA), The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts & Sciences (Rabun Gap, GA), and The Studios of Key West (Key West, FL). Hart received the 2023 SECAC Artist’s Fellowship Award. Her work is in several permanent collections including the King County Public Art Collection (Seattle, WA) and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Missouri), and has been featured in solo and group exhibitions, both in the U.S. and internationally.
Hart’s current project, Irreplaceable features anthotype portraits of at-risk and endangered flora and fauna native to Florida. An anthotype (from the Greek anthos “flower” and typos “imprint”) is an image created using photosensitive material from plants under the influence of light from the sun. In the case of Hart’s work, the anthotypes are made by crushing plants (leaves, petals, etc.) and mixing them with a bit of alcohol or water to make a liquid which is then painted on paper. After several coats and once dry, a photographic transparency is placed on top of the coated paper and then it bakes in the sun. Anthotypes are ephemeral – they will eventually fade – much like the subjects of the prints will eventually disappear from the planet.
In Florida Panther, the face of a panther emerges from an atmospheric burnt orange haze. The monochromatic effect, wrought from turmeric-coated paper, gives it a ghostly appearance. This critically imperiled big cat seems to gaze at us, perhaps aware that only 200 of its kind remain in the wild. Other plants, mostly foraged from her yard and kitchen, yield similar colorfield washes. These include red dragon fruit, petunia, chard, beetroot, blackberry, spinach, turmeric, butterfly pea flowers, among others. The properties of the plant pigments determine each print’s eventual color and dictate its required sun exposure duration, influenced by the season and weather. Consequently, exposure times for individual anthotypes range from hours to months.
The subjects of the Irreplaceable portraits are initially photographed within their natural habitats and at local conservation organizations*. Subjects range from a deep red morning glory found exclusively in the pine rocklands of Miami-Dade County (Man in the Ground/ Ipomoea microdactyla) to the Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta), threatened by habitat loss and incidental capture by commercial fisheries. Reviving a nontoxic 19th-century technique pioneered by the Scottish scientist Mary Somerville, the contemplative anthotype process now merges historical and contemporary photographic methods to underscore a sense of time that is both circular and finite. Inviting viewers to contemplate their beauty and precarity, the images serve as a reminder that some of these anthotypes could outlast the plants and animals they enshrine without further conservation efforts. Above all, Irreplaceable urges us to protect these vital life forms while we can and reminds us that the ecological systems they sustain—and are sustained by—include human beings.
Irreplaceable, along with Sharon Lee Hart’s other project Dark Tracing, can be viewed now as part of a group exhibition titled Ephemeral Construct on display at the Frank C. Ortis Art Gallery and Exhibit Hall in Pembroke Pines.
Ephemeral Construct: Four Solos
February 8 – May 18, 2024
The Frank, located at the Charles F. Dodge City Center
601 City Center Way
Pembroke Pines, FL 33025
www.thefrankgallery.org/p/exhibitions/now-on-exhibition
https://sharonleehart.com/section/526570-Irreplaceable%20%28Ongoing%29.html
* Flamingo Gardens, Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, Fairchild Botanical Gardens, and Loggerhead Marinelife Center
