Hi! We are Johanna Bolton and Maria Lusitano, two visual artists based in London. One year ago we visited Kew Gardens Herbarium and immediately fell in love with its amazing collection. We decided to apply for an art residency there, which started today. We are the first contemporary artists (working with mixed media) to be working with the Herbarium so this feels really special... and overwhelming, as the archive is so big!
Today we had our induction, given by the curator Clare Drinkell, who will be hosting us! The collection is very fragile, and constantly has to be guarded from insect infestations. It is a beautiful building, made to maximise natural light from the windows - it was built before electrical lighting, so they had to beware the risk of fire in those piles of dried herbs and paper.
