Cryptic Landscape/ Tirwedd Gryptig

Cryptic Landscape was exhibited at The National Botanic Garden of Wales from November 12th 2021 to 31st January 2022.

Cryptic Landscape evokes the miniature and mysterious botanical worlds of lichen and moss. These organisms are also cryptogams* which mean their reproduction is often unseen; Linnaeus described this category as like a ‘hidden marriage’.

Sarah has been observing and collecting lichen and moss specimens from the surrounding Tywi Valley area and creating a variety of pieces – including small porcelain slip casts and handmade film – along with ongoing research at The National Botanic Garden of Wales.

She says of the casting process, “Making porcelain slip casts feels like a small geological event, suspending a life form and transforming it into another material. “

Many of the works are purposely fragile, a reminder that these extraordinary ancient organisms, need healthy environments to flourish, as all beings do.

Lichen are extraordinary organisms being a combination of at least two unrelated species that form a permanent symbiotic relationship. They have many valuable roles including being bio-indicators of pollution as many can only thrive in good quality air, one can use them as a map to read air quality.

The wood and twig lichens prosper on veteran trees such as oaks due to the low acidity in the bark which depletes as the tree ages.

Moss and lichen are non vascular plants which provide substantial global ground cover. They are akin to a miniature rainforest and grow abundantly in temperate rainforests of which we have in rare pockets on the west coast of Britain and Ireland. 

Cryptic Landscape consisted of 14 works / assemblages which were displayed in two antique museum cabinets and a contemporary glass cabinet.

*The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707-78) who developed botanical classifications, coined the term cryptogam.

 (from the ancient Greek kryptos, "hidden" + gamos "to marry")

© Sarah Rhys