"Radicant" opens at the Hocken Collections on Saturday and runs until April 26.
It is the culmination of a year’s fellowship work by artists and partners Miranda Bellamy and Amanda Fauteux, who were inspired by the antique botanical treasures of the university’s botany department.
The fellows said they were "enamoured" by the botany department’s collection of antique Brendel anatomical models of plant specimens, which were made in Berlin and were procured for Otago in the late 1800s.
"There are so many stories to draw from these objects and they’ve become the subject of a video installation we made in collaboration with poet Colleen Coco Collins, which will feature in our upcoming fellowship exhibition," Ms Fauteux said.
During their 2024 fellowship, the artists made a large-scale glass sculpture, a video work using 3-D animation, and an eight-channel audio work, among many other projects initiated in the studio.
Each work required learning about the potential and the limitations of new materials and software, connecting with new collaborators, and thinking on new time scales.
Through interdisciplinary outcomes, their work considers human entanglements with other animals, plants, fungi and minerals, and is informed by site-specific research.
Ms Bellamy said being offered the fellowship was an honour.
The tradition of artistic dedication and experimentation that it represented was inspiring, and she said they loved the way audiences brought their own experiences and observations when spending time with their work.
"For us, the work we’ve made this year has continued to challenge our own expectations and preconceptions of plants, and has helped us to further consider our reciprocal relationships with others, including plants."
