Invasive Beauty: New Works by May Babcock and Rebecca Volynsky

Ecologists and wildlife experts often distinguish between “invasive” and “exotic” species when they talk about non-native plants. They might say invasive when they want to emphasize that an organism is likely to do irreparable harm; that it will unbalance the delicate system to which it has been introduced. What happens when artists interpret, and re-purpose imagery and materials from the natural world, inserting them into built environments, and other spaces, to which they are non-native? Can these works become invasive?

PVDFest public art alumna May Babcock and Rebecca Volynsky explore the concept of invasive beauty in distinct yet complimentary ways. Babcock harvests non-native plants from Rhode Island’s eddies and and tide pools, pulping them into hand-made paper, or arranging them into painterly gelatinous forms. Her re-contextualization draws out the subtle patterns and delicate hues of oft-maligned flora. Volynsky’s murals and other painted works appropriate the language of the still life, rending bouquets and tessellating natural motifs in abstracted vibrant colors that invite viewers to sit next to and among them, but also to consider how floral abundance can be simultaneously soothing and overwhelming. Both artists transformed their public and studio practices through PVDFest Public Art commissions; in this joint exhibition they draw with and pour paper pulp using Volynksy’s motifs as inspiration. By allowing the paper to dry into multi-dimensional, layered forms, Babcock and Volynksy create works that are at once connected to their previous efforts, and yet wholly new.