Artist Statement
Professionally I work both as an artist and a gardener, following recent qualifications in horticulture. My art practice is multidisciplinary, the main areas being art and science projects and live art. Performance works have integrated photography, installation and choreography, using objects collected and made, fluid materials, mounds of organic particles, slide projection, working extensively with light: an intensively physical movement language transforming the nature of the installation as the performance took place. My installations and computer animations are designed to involve viewers as both participants and audience. Genuine medical samples and other objects or tools have been used as artefacts, often creating artworks with a distilled sense of ritual.
My main interest until recently has been gender issues and the social and cultural representation of the body. Between 1997 and 2002 I researched and worked with medical imaging: ultrasound, MRI scans and aspects of minimal access surgery. This has led to a series of performances and site-specific installations in hospitals and health care settings. The work is well documented in the digital animation 4 SIGHTS, available on CD-ROM.
The art and botany project HOP, STOCK and BENT, represents a new phase in my art practice, involving a long period of research into botany, plant history and nature conservation, as well as harnessing, as an artist, my experience in horticulture.
HOP, STOCK & BENT is looking at five plants, chosen randomly because I liked their names: hop, scented stock, bent grasses, spindle tree and plane tree. These common plants are visited through a series of creative and scientific lenses, with the final artworks presenting multifaceted plant portraits and visual stories, using photography, installation and digital media. The project includes documenting the role of each plants, their commercial, scientific, recreational and social uses, as well as their place within horticulture and botany. Following each plant’s unique nature has led to long journeys across the country, visiting places as diverse as high-tech turf farms, chemistry labs, seed banks, urban car parks, ancient woodlands and basket makers workshops. Bringing it all together, I aim to explore the complex and subtle interactions between plants and people, within broader environmental concerns.
Resume
Name: Françoise Sergy
Country of Birth: Lausanne, Switzerland
Residence: UK
DOB:1957
Qualifications: Art: London Contemporary Dance School (Certificate) NCFE Certificates in Multimedia Design (Intermediate, Advanced) Horticulture: RHS General Certificate (Distinction) RHS Diploma in Horticulture (Commendation)
Currently working as self-employed artist and gardener.
My art practice spans more than 20 years and includes performance works, photography, installations, computer animations, as well as teaching workshops and residencies in FE and HE education and art projects.
Projects in collaboration with scientists include residencies at EMR Hop Research in Kent, Kew Millennium Seed Bank and Croydon Mayday Hospital Radiography Department. Collaborations with artists include projects with photographer Rosy Martin, choreographer Henrietta Esiri and glass artist Emma Woffenden.
The work has been shown extensively throughout the UK, also in Switzerland, Germany, Cuba and Mexico.
Commissions from Northern Contemporary Art Gallery, Camerawork, Chisenhale Dance Space. Funding from London Arts, Digital Awards, the Arts Council, Regional Arts Lottery Programme.
