Botanical plate

… a large herbarium on small handmade papers; from there you enter in a big room with large canvases illustrating plant roots and tubers: two Farfaracci (Petasites officinalis Moench), looking one to the other; a potato roots; other little-known plants that are widespread in the Tuscan countryside … The intent behind this type of work is to show the healthy biological functionality of the plant, recreating it through the chemistry of which it is composed.
The mud with which they are painted is taken firstly by the garden of the grandfather artist, today from the surrounding fields to his studio. A fundamental and essential material of private life: the cradle, the mood that protected and gave birth to its roots, the cultivation environment that has allowed her to grow and then get closer to culture. A culture, in this case that of scientific and systematic studies, which is now being attempted to restore energy and liveliness, as a sort of debt to pay but also as a courageous challenge to launch …

Gaia Bindi, text for the catalogue of Organica, Sakros, Carrara, 2008

  1. Caterina Sbrana, Tavola botanica-Farfaraccio, mud on canvas, cm 192×226,2008
  2. Caterina Sbrana, La Grande zolla, mud and vegetal juice on paper, cm 49×35, 2008
  3. Caterina Sbrana, Seed collection, detail, mud on paper, 2008
  4. View of the exhibition, Sakros, Carrara, 2008