Dan's Papers - August 31, 2007 - Seaweeds of the South Fork at Bravura

Seaweeds of the South Fork is one of several exhibits Bravura presents with the goal to demonstrate the diversity found in the broad and engaging discipline known as art.

Nature has always held a close relationship with art. Humankind has consistently looked at the natural world for artistic inspiration for artistic expression. From the Paleolithic era to modern times, we have wondered, searched and expressed ourselves through the interpretation and understanding of our natural world.

The Western and Eastern tradition of illustrating flora and fauna has often been relegated to an inferior place in the "fit" of art history. Today, botanical illustrations and herbaria are seen as artworks that deserve attention. The added feature of their recording and/or preserving life forms adds to the intrinsic value of illustrated and preserved specimen collections. For centuries (other than in Japan and China), seaweeds were neither studied nor depicted in the corpus of Western European botanical illustration. Seaweeds are not "weeds" in the sense of being non-beneficial, negative plants. "Weed" is an oft-used suffix denoting a plant as in Milkweed and Joe Pye weed. Phycologists use the term seaweed in lieu of "benthic marine macro-algae."

Larry B. Liddle, Professor Emeritus, Southampton College, Long Island University, now Stony Brook Southampton, has devoted the past several months collecting and mounting seaweeds especially for this exhibit. Seaweeds of the South Fork can be appreciated on both scientific and artistic levels. The seaweeds are mounted on a plain white ground. In their marine environment, seaweeds exist in three dimensions. As dried and pressed specimens, they are one-dimensional. This is where Dr Liddle's creativity comes into play. He meticulously arranges each seaweed in an attempt to convey how it would appear living in the water. The process of collecting, preserving, arranging and pressing the specimens challenge and inspire him to reinvent and interpret nature resulting in unique works of art.

We e-mailed several questions to Dr. Liddle about the scientific study and classification of seaweeds (phycology), the chronology of the discipline and the locations of major seaweed collections (herbaria). His replies follow:

Regarding Phycology:

"The first written references to algae are in ancient Chinese classics. The Roman word fucus, from the Greek phykos, (thus phycology) both referred to marine algae in general until Linnaeus in 1753 described the genus Fucus, marking the beginning of formal Latinized naming of algae. Before that, the algae were often included with fungi, lichens and true plants. Then, in 1754 Linnaeus applied the general name Algae to refer to the simple aquatic plants we know as algae today."

"Besides the large collection of the British Museum of Natural History, the other large seaweed herbarium collections in the US are at the Smithsonian Institution, The University of California at Berkley and at the University of Michigan. Japanese museums of Natural History have extensive local collections as do Australia and New Zealand."

The Gallery will display the Larry B. Liddle herbarium along with a selection of 19th and 20th century seaweed illustrations as well as ceramics and glass objects with seaweed motifs. Also on display will be a selection of contemporary products that are made from seaweed.

We hope that the Seaweeds of the South Fork exhibition will be aesthetically pleasing, informative and fun.