"in pale (n.)" (detail), 2025, Bianca Hoffrichter, fine art photographic print on fabric

The Language of Flowers
Group exhibition with the Rundle Collective Studios
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8 artists presented works responding to the "Language of Flowers" for this years SALA exhibition. 

While often the usual flowers come to mind when thinking of this Victorian tradition, works created for this collection instead focused on those often overlooked or forgotten plants which were still part of messages passed through the Language of Flowers. Grass can be subversive, submissive, enduring, and pervasive. It can be an idealised symbol of urbanised life, or the creeping wild at the fringes of the forgotten, neglected corners. Generally associated with ideas of 'submission' in the Victorian readings of grass, the works interrogated alternative narratives embodied in grass. Pine and Sheoak also feature, specifically Aleppo Pine (a classified weed in Australia), with pine being associated with themes of hope, pity, and endurance.

These works deeply interrogated explorations of inner and urban wilds, the landscapes of our inner worlds, as well as the fringes of accessible protected pockets of wilderness. Foraged materials were collected, dried, and attempted to be classified. For each grass found there was almost an identical native plant and corresponding alien species; one promising a wealth of nutrients for the environment, and the other promising to compromise the ecosystem. Grasses and seeds tracked across the paths of settler colonisation trace impacts of our history today, and hint at often unseen battles in nature through harsh conditions for limited resources.

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"veldt (open uncultivated grassland)", 2025, Bianca Hoffrichter, fine art photographic print on awagami rice paper, glass, vintage wooden frame, 387 x 437 mm (print only 220 x 330 mm)

"wyrt (Old English for weed)", 2025, Bianca Hoffrichter, fine art photographic print on awagami rice paper, glass, brass frame, 280 x 100 mm (print only 90 x 90 mm)

"fallow (unused or resting field)", 2025, Bianca Hoffrichter, fine art photographic print on fabric, Kangaroo Grass, Tussock Grass, Tall Fescue Grass, Bluegrass, brass wire, nylon thread, 820 x 1000 mm (print only 165 x 220 mm)

"grasshold", 2025, Bianca Hoffrichter, fine art photographic print on awagami rice paper, glass, brass frame, 280 x 100 mm (print only 90 x 90 mm)

"fenwake", 2025, Bianca Hoffrichter, fine art photographic print on fabric, foraged Drooping Sheoak and Aleppo Pine branches, brass wire, nylon thread, 640 x 800 mm (print only 130 x 235 mm)

"afterseed", 2025, Bianca Hoffrichter, fine art photographic print on awagami rice paper, glass, brass frame, 280 x 100 mm (print only 90 x 90 mm)

"in pale (n.)", 2025, Bianca Hoffrichter, fine art photographic print on fabric, foraged Aleppo Pine branches, brass wire, nylon thread, 640 x 800 mm (print only 130 x 235 mm)