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27. Benita Laylim

Ghosts of lost species gather at the shrine, 2023

clay, oxides, stains, glaze

 

 

Australia is a haunted landscape in many ways. Since the European invasion, the ecosystem has lost nearly 50 percent of its forests and 38 species of its endemic flora. These ‘ghost species’ are recorded as extinct, yet remain in a spectral sense in archives and data sets. My ceramic installation, Ghosts of lost species gather at the shrine, is based on research into extinct native flowering plants, with a particular focus on orchids (four species are declared extinct and 51 critically endangered). It is structured as a kind of shrine to commemorate the loss of these plants and contemplate the form their ghosts could take.

About the Artist

 

Benita Laylim has Anglo-Chinese ancestory and lives on Gadigal land in Sydney, NSW.

@bennibluu

 

 

Transcription

My name is Benita Laylim and my work for Hidden is titled Ghosts of lost species gather at the shrine. 

This ceramic installation is designed as a memorial or shrine to various species of flora which have become extinct since European invasion. For this project I focussed my research on orchids, which are the largest family of flowering plants. Australia contains the world's most diverse terrestrial orchids with approximately 1600 species. 90 percent of these are endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else on earth. 51 of these species are critically endangered. Four are declared extinct.

These orchids are the Acianthus ledwardii, last seen in Burleigh Heads in 1934, the Short Spider Orchid or Caladenia brachyscapa, last seen near Warrnambool in 1959, the Fringed Spider Orchid or Caladenia thysanochila, last seen in 1988 in a heathy woodland on the Mornington Peninsula, and the Magnificent Spider Orchid, Caladenia Magnifica, last seen in 1979 near Guilford. 

We place cut flowers on graves, plant them in the surroundings or upon our dead. We use flower motifs and sculptures to commemorate our losses. For us, they are symbolic of the beauty and fragility of life. In turn, for Hidden, I wanted to create a space to commemorate the loss of native flowering species. My ceramic installation includes a shrine and various small sculptures which contain the ghostly resemblance of these extinct plants. Here you can take a moment to consider the death of these species.