Dawn at Fox Tor Mire

Emma Hogbin is a maker living and working in Princetown, Dartmoor. With a degree in Environmental Science, Emma works with her surroundings to gather colour responsibly and create place-specific art. Each Wild Colour specimen showcases a plant name printed in hand-set letterpress with synthetic ink, alongside a wild colour botanical ink abstract created by plant biochrome chemicals foraged from Dartmoor. The series is styled as a formal Victorian herbarium, capturing our industrial history alongside inks made using methods that are thousands of years old, but virtually unknown to modern artists. The botanical ink abstracts are created by the plants themselves through chemical reactions on the page. These marks emerge beyond what any brush could achieve, allowing viewers to engage with nature outside shop-bought, industrially-produced colours. The plant-derived colours are reactive, changing as they interact with air, paper, and their modifiers. In contrast, the letterpress text is a nod to the permanent marks humans leave on the landscape. These living works of art will slowly evolve over time; their evolution is tempered by application of a mordant to the vintage handmade Bircham Green paper and UV-protective glass to the gallery-standard framing.

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