CHARLOTTE BANCROFT
(1817 - 1896)
Charlotte Bancroft was a pioneering English botanical illustrator and explorer in the late 19th century. Bancroft challenged Victorian era norms by venturing into a male-dominated field during a time when female participation in scientific pursuits was uncommon.

Bancroft is most celebrated for her adventurous expedition in 1862, which led her to a remote and largely uncharted archipelago of the Pacific, rich in flora biodiversity. The islands' isolated nature had preserved their ecological integrity, attracting Bancroft's scientific interest. The location of the archipelago still remains unknown.

She dedicated several years living within this unprecedented environment, capturing its variety and vibrancy in hundreds of meticulous drawings.

These illustrations, in addition to being remarkable botanical records, exhibit a unique appreciation for the interconnectedness of the local flora and fauna, a viewpoint ahead of her time.

UNSEEN FLORA
Part of the wider Artificial Botany (2019) series, Unseen Flora (2023) shines a spotlight on the fantastical and surreal botanical illustrations created by four British scientists and artists: Charlotte Bancroft, Beatrice Hastings, Edmund Thorne and Theodore Winslow.

The series has as its focus the concept of truth, contextualised in the contemporary digital age where the boundaries between real and virtual seem to become more and more obscure. Unseen Flora wants to explore unreal but plausible histories through the visual depictions of the four illustrators, offering us an unprecedented glimpse into their imaginary botanical dimensions.

Founded in 2007, fuse* is a multidisciplinary art studio that investigates the expressive possibilities of emerging technologies, aiming to interpret the complexity of human, social and natural phenomena. Since its origins, the studio’s research has had as its primary objective the creation of multimedia installations and performances, produced with the goal of exploring the boundaries between different disciplines in pursuit of new connections between light, space, sound and movement.

fuse* private collection