Spirits of the Flowers Keep Watch: My Jeanne Baret Dubernat
Spirits of the Flowers Keep Watch: My Jeanne Baret Dubernat
To better understand the history and geography of Jeanne Baret Dubernat's life beyond her dates (b. 1740 - d. 1807) and feats (the first woman to circumnavigate the globe) I looked to art history, beginning with artists of Jeanne's lifetime, like Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun and François Boucher. I also sought paintings that presented material evidence of Jeanne's world. While searching for French naval vessels, I found William Turner's painting of the horrific massacre aboard the British slave ship, the Zong. In 1781 more than 130 enslaved African people were killed by the Zong's crew. Seems the owners had insured the Africans as cargo and were worth more dead, than alive.
What other horrors were lurking within the oceans on which Baret traveled?
I eventually narrowed my project to fourteen artists and their work (twelve paintings, one video, and one sculptural installation) that dates from the early 17th century to the 21st. To me, these works echo or reinforce Jeanne's story in some way.
I've chosen still-life floral arrangements as my medium. I use bold colorful flowers like the ones Jeanne may have experienced. But unlike Jeanne's, my materials are plastic, artificial flowers sourced from big box merchandisers like The Dollar Store and WalMart.
For the photographs, I create compositions that interpret each artist's work. I then make photographs of the displays as well as photograph my source image (painting or installation) somewhere within my own home. In this way, I hope to ingest Jeanne’s world while pointing to the world's many incompatible truths: beauty and terror, pleasure and pain, and the ways and methods that artists, through the centuries, have inspired us to notice and remember.
Artists Referenced
Adriana Varejão (b. 1964, lives in Rio de Janeiro)
Candice Lin (b. 1979, lives in Los Angeles)
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755 – 1842, French)
Firelei Báez (b. 1981, lives in New York City)
François Boucher (1703 – 1770, French)
Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977, lives in New York City)
Leonor Fini (1907 – 1996, Argentine-Italian)
Lisa Reihana (b. 1964, lives in New Zealand)
Pacita Abad (1946 – 2004, Filipino-American)
Paul Gauguin (1848 – 1903, French)
Roberto Matta (1911 – 2002, Chilean)
Roelandt Savery (1576 – 1639, Dutch)
Wangechi Mutu (b. 1972, lives in Kenya and New York)
William Turner (1789 - 1862, British)