Plant Series, 2014–2015
Observation is a key process in becoming sensitive to the Critical Zone. In Cemelesai’s drawings, the plants, fungi, and other forms of vegetation, depicted with a great deal of precision and detail with their geometric and repetitive patterns, are the result of such observation. And yet the artist could not look at them directly but had to recall his memories of what their shape was. Why? Because some of the species of plants that he used to see and observe as a child seem to have disappeared today. He therefore creates an inventory, which oscillates between the precision of his observation and the fantasy of what his memories allow him to recall.