Image courtesy Dornith Doherty
For nearly 10 years,brSouthlake resident and artist Dornith Doherty has traveled the world photographingbrseed banks. Starting next month, her photographs will be on display at the AmonbrCarter Museum of American Art. The free exhibit, Dornith Doherty: Archiving Eden, runs August 12 through January 14,br2018. All are invited to view how Doherty intertwines science and art,brshowcasing the planet’s botanical diversity through 15 images from seed banksbracross the world.
If you're not familiar,brseed banks are designed to preserve the world's crops and plants againstbrspecies loss brought by blight, development, global warming, pests, unexpectedbrchange and war. Long interested in how humans shape the land, Doherty took itbrupon herself to explore seed vaults and the activities of their researchbrscientists. Besides documenting the appearance of these vaults, Doherty createdbrX-rays of a wide array of plant seeds with the assistance of scientists. Shebrthen transformed the X-ray images into poetic odes to protecting the world'sbrbotanical diversity.
“The artist used abrvariety of photographic approaches to create these remarkable images thatbrsymbolize biodiversity loss,” said John Rohrbach, senior curator ofbrphotographs, in a press release. “A seven-foot-high lenticular construction showingbrX-rays of 1,400 ash tree seeds collected by the National Center for Genetic Resource Preservation in Fort Collins, Colorado,brreflects the ongoing decimation of ash trees across North America by the ashbrtree borer. Her array of five banana-seedling clones illustrates scientists'brrace to develop a new banana strain to replace our standard grocery storebrversion, which may soon be lost to blight.”
Rohrbach says somebrecologists suggest that earth is losing more than 10 animal and plant speciesbreach day, and he hopes visitors will ponder the plight of plants across thebrglobe and in their own backyards.
“The exhibition asks usbrto consider the ongoing work of scientists and volunteers who work, far behindbrthe noise of our daily newsfeeds, to protect earth's botanical diversity,”brRohrbach said. “It is a call to reflect on the beauty, variety, and most ofbrall, the fragility of our world's plant life.”
Dornith Doherty:brArchiving Eden was organized by thebrAmon Carter Museum of American Art. A book of the same name accompanies thebrexhibition and will be sold in the museum store.
The artist will present abrfree lecture and book signing at the museum on November 4 at 10:30 a.m. Thisbrprogram on American art, culture and society is made possible by a generousbrgift from the late Anne Burnett Tandy.
A 2012 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, Doherty was born in Houston, graduated cum laudebrwith a Bachelor of Arts from Rice University and received a Master of Fine Artsbrin Photography from Yale University. She currently resides in Southlake and isbra distinguished research professor at the University of North Texas, where shebrhas been on the faculty since 1996.