Alex MacArthur Interiors
Matthew Pagett
Matthew Pagett

My interest in flowers was sparked ten years ago by a quote from writer Jean Genet. He had been incarcerated at the Mettray Colony, a progressive prison in early c20th France. One of its finest inventions, Genet later said, was to have known not to put a wall around it: “it’s much harder to escape when you have to cross a bed of flowers.” Whether or not this is actually correct, I was struck by the idea of a flower possessing some kind of force. 

 

I’ve since made a number of drawings investigating the worlds and languages of flowers. Lockdown made a gardener out of me and deepened my relationship with the plant world. And I came to see that in many respects, drawing IS gardening and vice versa.

 

The rose has a multitude of meanings and associations. Like its petals, they unfurl throughout history and throughout the world. This particular body of work attempts to express/embody certain aspects that I'm personally drawn to: rose as button, fragment, comet, detritus, suction pad, network, mirror, organ, pixel. 

Exhibited Work