The Hidden Sex

I have been extremely quiet on this blog since October, when I put my head down and started working my fingers to the bone to get my work ready for my solo exhibition, 'The Hidden Sex', which opened last Thursday at Craft ACT in Canberra. As it was the first exhibition for the year, it was a crowded opening, so thanks to all of you who braved the heat to come and see the work. The exhibition is on until 16 March 2019, and I will be giving a floor talk at 12pm sharp on International Women's Day, 8th March.

'Collecting Ladies I-III' series, 2018-9
Watercolour, marine algae on Arches 300gsm

'The Hidden Sex' is an exhibition that was inspired by my 2016 arts residency at the National Museum of Australia. My original project was to look at their botanical holdings but I quickly became inspired (obsessed!) by their two unprovenanced seaweed albums.  I have posted about these previously so will not go through my findings again here. The exhibition concept was to highlight the  invisibility of women in both society and science in the 19th century. Women were not allowed to attend university, and were hardly ever acknowledged for their contribution to our knowledge of our Australian flora.  All the kudos usually went to men, such as Government Botanist, Ferdinand von Mueller; William Henry Harvey, the great Irish phycologist; Joseph Hooker, of Kew; and Carl Agardh of Sweden.  However, not many know that Mueller conscripted over 225 women and children to collect for him, and some of these women sent their collections directly overseas to other scientists.  Hence the collections by some of our most noted women collectors, such as Jessie Hussey of Encounter Bay, SA; Louisa Ann Meredith, from Orford in Tasmania, and others are also in overseas herbaria.

'From Land and Sea: Rhodospermae, Melanospermae & Chlorospermae'
Three pairs of vintage kid leather gloves, embroidered with silk

Thinking about women collecting algae and vascular plants in challenging conditions wearing their heavy garments, skirts, boots and gloves inspired me to embroider some vintage leather gloves myself. Gloves were made in supple yet tight-fitting leather so that they could mould the hand into the proscribed shape - dainty, with long tapering fingers; not flaccid yet not too muscular. They also kept the skin unblemished from the sun. Indeed, I had trouble finding a 'glove model' for my photo shoot, as even the largest glove would not fit today's narrow hand! These gloves could not get wet, so there is a paradox between the gloves and the act of collecting. The three sets of gloves represent the three classes of seaweed, but the scientific name for them has altered slightly.  I have chosen to use the classifications instigated by Harvey in the 19th century - Rhodospermae (red); Chlorospermae (green) and Melanospermae (brown).

Women of the 19th century had proscribed pastimes to help them while away the hours - botanical painting and collection, needlework, music and languages. In the mid 19th century, a craze for collecting seaweed was at its height, having taken over from fern collecting, or pteridomania.  Botanical collections were pressed in special albums, on cards and in books, and became the subject of watercolours and dioramas. The series 'Collecting Ladies' references the etiquette of dress (handkerchiefs and gloves!) and the pastimes of lace-making, embroidery and botanical collecting.

Installation view, The Hidden Sex, Julie Ryder.

On the left of the installation photo are a series of large cyanotypes, made with seaweed I have collected on my travels.  The cyanotype process was the first photographic process invented by Sir John Herschel, but it was pioneered by Anna Atkins in the 19th century, who used this new technique to produce handmade volumes of photographs of British Seaweed that she had collected. The New York Public Library are currently holding an exhibition of these images from the two editions they have acquired, but they are only on for another week. My work references the life-sized work made by Anna, but I have enlarged them to make a bolder statement.

'Submerged' 2018-9, Julie Ryder
Vintage handkerchiefs, cyanotype, seaweed

In 'Submerged', a series of 42 vintage handkerchiefs, I have used the cyanotype process again to reference women's work.  The title refers to both the seaweed being submerged beneath the waves as well as the plight of women in academia and society.

My interest in Victorian Glass Microscope slides has also been described in previous posts, but for this exhibition I had always wanted to produce a series that contained real seaweed and referenced the lace making done by women that appeared on handkerchiefs and clothing. 

'Flowers of the Sea, I-VI', 2019
Glass, seaweed, hand engraving.

Each of the six large (25x70cm) glass microscope slides have been engraved with the place of the collection (Orford, Encounter Bay, Ballinskelligs, Frank's Beach, Macmaster's Beach and Bicheno). Some of these related directly to our past women seaweed collectors, whilst others are favourite places that have personal resonance with my seaweed collection obsession. I will show some details in a later post.

Lastly, as an avid collector of anything that the waves throw up, I have made a large wall installation 'Hortus conclusus' (which literally means hidden or secret or walled garden}.  Made entirely from cuttlebones, these have been collected over a period of years and reference the aggressive passion for collecting multiples of everything by scientists and amateur scientists of the 18th and 19th centuries - even to the detriment of the species, and many species did go extinct, as did many ferns and other botanicals.

'Hortus conclusus' 2019 Julie Ryder
Cuttlebone, carving.

In my collection there are two 'types' of cuttlebones that can be found - smooth ones, and furrowed ones, which are very labial in appearance.  These are not known to be 'male' and 'female' types, in fact conversations with marine biologists have not shed any light as to why there are two sorts. As they are NOT seaweeds I was wondering whether they belonged in the exhibition at all, despite my initial intuition and strong intention that they should be.  Whilst researching I came across an unusual feature of the Australian cuttlefish that not many people know about that clinched it's addition to the exhibition.  During mating times, once a year, all the cuttlefish gather en masse in Whyalla, SA, for an orgy.  Well, not really an orgy, because males only mate once, and then they die.  As there are more males than females, competition to hand her their 'sperm sac' (yes literally, with their tentacles!) is fierce, with the larger, more dominant males guarding the females from other weaker males.  However, these 'inferior' males have come up with a unique and very sneaky strategy to sidle up to the females in order to hand over their genes.  They camouflage themselves as females, even to the point of having a fake egg sac, so that they can mingle with them and avoid fighting with the stronger male. Ingenious. Hidden Sex..... 

There is an amazing podcast out at the moment which gives further insight into this gender swapping hosted by Benjamin Law, called Look at Me.  Click here , and listen to the end where a very poignant story is told by underwater photographer, PT Hirschfield (IG: @pinktankscuba)

I do hope you will get to see my exhibition at Craft and if you are on Instagram, you can follow my whole journey with the making of work for the exhibition @julierydertextiles

I love hearing your comments, critiques and thoughts about my work, so please don't be shy! And if you have enjoyed this post, or my work, please pass on my blog and Instagram details to others 💚

Cheers

Julie

Glasnevin Botanic Gardens

Summer has hit Dublin with a vengeance and I am really enjoying the sunshine and long nights.....it doesn't get dark till around 9.30 or 10pm, so you can manage to fit so much more into a day.
On Monday I had an appointment to view items in the Glasnevin Botanic Gardens Herbarium which I had already identified months ago. Many herbaria simply do not have the manpower or resources to accommodate random requests to view their collections, so one has to have both the knowledge of the collection itself and the ability to work independently within that environment to gain access. Lucky for me I have some cred...haha....after this I will call myself "the seaweed whisperer" ...all will be revealed....

Glasnevin Botanic Gardens, Dublin

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View of the Palm House

Like the Herbarium at TCD, Glasnevin Herbarium was furnished with gorgeous old wooden cabinets and drawers, although most of the collection itself is kept in a steel compactus. Items I had requested were waiting for me, but I was also given free range to the unincorporated material which, to my mind, holds the greater interest because it is material that is not broken up into taxa and distributed within the scientific working collection. For me, this is where I can find untold stories, mysteries and give rein to my inner supersleuth.

The Herbarium

My primary object of interest was a 19th century album of Irish seaweeds collected by William Sawers, a collecting companion of my focal collector, Charles Morrison. I have documented approximately 15 Morrison albums now, and this album would enable me to pinpoint specific collection locations and times that they collected together. Comparison of handwriting on duplicate specimens will enable me to accurately interpret an album I will be viewing during my residency at the Ulster Museum Herbarium in a few weeks time. I have planned everything down to the nth degree for this trip as it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get the final clues needed for me to finish writing  a paper and focus on new artistic work for an exhibition next January.

Sawers Seaweed Album

Here are a few examples of Sawer's album. Incredibly, there was also a letter attached from a botanist written  in 1952 who was also trying to determine the same things I was - the differentiation between Sawers and Morrison collections! Unfortunately she has passed, but I wish I could go back in time to discuss my findings with her.

Looking familiar, same but different!

The wonderful thing about life is it always throws you up something you don't expect, and on this trip so far there have been two collections which have not had information about them on file, but which I have managed to find provenance for, or add substantially to that knowledge. One collection was at TCD, and the other here at Glasnevin.

Encounter Bay Seaweed folio

In a listing of holdings there was an item called "Encounter Bay seaweeds" - no other information.
I had asked to view it but initially thought it must be a Jessie Hussey collection. Jessie Hussey was an Australian seaweed collector of some regard in the 19th century who lived at Port Elliot in SA and collected in Encounter Bay. She was a respected collector for Von Mueller and Agardh, the Swedish phycologist.  I followed her footsteps last year, collecting at Encounter Bay, and introducing my husband's young nephew to the joys of mounting seaweeds and beach fossicking.

One of the many Plocamium specimens from Encounter Bay

This huge folio of over 90 mounted specimens was definitely not her style - there were no collection locations or dates and the specimens were very repetitive - very much an amateur collection, yet impressive in its size ( each sheet was 75cm in length)  and expensively bound. I carefully sorted through each fragile specimen. This was no easy task as many of these collections are either covered in soot or dust or, even more insidious, chemicals for preservation. This means that it is necessary to keep washing your hands at regular intervals....tiresome, time-consuming, but not negotiable. As I was sorting through the specimens, one of the pages had a name on it - the only one in the whole folio. It was Hon. G. Hawker....wow...who was that??? The Keeper and I had no idea but a quick internet search by me found that the Honorable G. Hawker had been  a prominant and well-loved politician in the SA Assembly from 1858. He arrived from the UK in 1840 with a Bachelor of Arts from Trinity College, Cambridge, and went into sheep farming. At the time of his death he was one of the oldest JP's of the district, and was one of the longest serving member of the SA Parliament in history. I didn't find any direct refernce to seaweed collecting as a hobby, but it's early days yet and I haven't finished with the Hon. Hawker yet! More sleuthing abounds........

Indigo reflections

I have been doing a lot of indigo dyeing now the weather has warmed up, and it has been really satisfying to wake up my three vats, warm them up and attend to their individual needs. These vats are all natural vats mostly using henna as the antioxidant, although one of the vats which I have had for a few years now, got a dose of over-ripe bananas last summer after my indigo workshop at Sturt Summer School.

This year I will be teaching Introduction to Natural Dyes and Mordant Printing, and there is only one place left, so if you are interested, go to the Sturt website and enrol!

Two weekends ago I ran an Indigo intensive Workshop from my home, where I am in the process of planning a purpose built studio. I wanted to test out how everything would work running classes from the downstairs space, and I had 8 eager students as my innaugural students.

Unfortunately our hot summery day disappeared and we had rain for most of the day but that didn't dampen our creativity or good humour! I ran through the process of making up an organic indigo henna vat from scratch (which then gave us the luxury of 4 vats to work from) and some beautiful pieces were made as you can see below.

One thing I stress to students is the attention paid to preparing the fabric before dyeing and also after dyeing in indigo. The finishing process is very crucial to ensure that the indigo is fixed inside the fibres and not just sitting on the outside, where it will quickly crock off. After rinsing in cold water several times after oxidation, and then neutralising in a vinegar rinse, it is important to then place the cotton fabric into very hot soapy water. As Joy Boutrup explained, this serves the dual purpose of getting rid of any excess indigo pigment on the surface of the fabric which has not been trapped inside the fibre, and at the same time swells the indigo molecule that is inside the fibre, ensuring that it is now trapped and cannot escape. In a recent Instagram post Aboubakar Fofana also stresses the importance of correct finishing of the indigo dyed fabric.

I'm off on a short holiday to Singapore and will post something on the textiles while I am there.

Cheers for now!