Mother & Child

For their inaugural showing of work in China, Ackroyd & Harvey have regrown Mother and Child (Aka Heather and Adèle) first presented publicly at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California in 1998.

Their pivotal research project* in 1997 with a leading UK environmental research institute (IGER), enabled the artists to confer long-term stability on their transient chlorophyll images with the application of a break-through strain of ‘stay-green’ grass seed and specialised drying methods. The scientists meanwhile took inspiration from the complexity of colour in the artists’ work and have made significant international developments with a range of non-invasive high-resolution imaging techniques. As a result of the pioneering art and science lines of research established a decade ago, in May 2012 the National Plant Phenomics Centre opened at Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK.

* funded by the Wellcome Trust Sci-Art Award scheme (1997) and NESTA Pioneer Award (2001)