A GARDEN OF GRASSES
A garden of grasses is a conservation project that channels collective grief against the destruction of the grassland ecosystem on Victoria’s Volcanic Plain – a landscape once maintained by First Nations fire-stick farming as a flourishing food bowl and habitat for native fauna.
Over a period of two years, Wells began cultivating native grassland plants at home in a confined urban space. A garden of grasses is a time-based photographic exploration of how, through the seasons, the plants have been forced to grow amongst introduced exotic species – moving around in pots, enduring extreme heat and shade and going to seed.
The series of photograms feature the expired plant matter. These ghostly images simultaneously reveal from a worm’s eye view the plants’ agency as edible tubers, roots and seeds and function as an index for the threat of their imminent extinction.
Showy Podolitis #2, photogram, 40.5 x 30.5cm
Blushing Bindweed, photogram, 35.5 x 28 cm
Chamomile Sunray, photogram, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Chocolate Lily, photogram, 81.5 x 30.5 cm (2 panels)
Murnong Yam Daisy, photogram, 35.5 x 28 cm
Pale Everlasting, photogram, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Long Hair Plume Grass, photogram, 81.5 x 30.5 cm (2 panels)
Possum Tails, Photogram, 35.5 x 28 cm
Running Postman, photogram, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Showy Podolepis #1, photogram, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Hound's Tongue, photogram, 81.5 x 30.5 cm (2 panels)
Velvet Tussock Grass, photogram, 40.6 x 30.5 cm
Bronze Bluebell, photogram_40.5 x 30.5 cm
Wiry Buttons #1, photogram, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
Wiry Buttons #2, photogram, 40.5 x 30 cm