Lori Esposito

These speculative botanical works engage the body in a sensory touch relationship with drawing. Each plant subject is generated from multiples, using patterns and ornamentation to create a space with a transitional and fluid logic. Botanical forms extend from compositions of exacting lines with smooth sharp edges, which set up a vibrational and rhizomatic field of play. In the second phase I re-approach the drawings as a corporeal force, reaching, dragging and pushing against structures with fingers, palms, wrists and elbows. This displacement of color creates organic forms, pushing into and carving out illusions of void and mass. Contrasts of dark and light are animated by the elements of balance, repetition and movement, mixing into complex variations of neutral interactions. This process engaged a visually tactile field through somatic movement with the shapes of petals, leaves, roots, feathers, and other natural forms.

The reflective surfaces of the burnished graphite drawings engage the onlooker in perceptual play as areas of emphasis slip from positive to negative space and compositional elements appear to flicker. Destructive forms such as hand grenades and pistols are integrated into decorative and lush grounds to be discovered. These illusionist structures reference Ouija boards, video games, and chessboards. They reveal that there exist gradations between binaries such as black and white, medicine and poison, power and vulnerability. These pseudo-narrative works are also inspired by European landscape architecture drawings, turn of the century botanical illustrations, Audubon field guides, and illuminated manuscripts.