Introduction
I had been making environmentally themed landscape photographs for over 25 years. Wanting to challenge myself and try something studio-based, I approached naturalist and environmental educator Jeanette Henderson to collaborate on a new project idea. Jeanette and I worked together at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan; I am on faculty, and she was program manager at the Calvin University Ecosystem Preserve and Native Gardens. Jeanette taught plant taxonomy to my visual culture students, and I taught photography at her summer nature camps.
For this project, Jeanette identified and sourced nonnative insects, birds, and aquatic creatures from her vast professional connections; collected plants from ditches, roadsides, and backyards; and created floral arrangements that I transformed into digital photographic images inspired by Northern Renaissance still life painting.
The first photograph, taken in July of 2021, was informed by my memory of what Northern Renaissance still life paintings looked like: rich black backgrounds with trompe l’oeil realism and symbols of mortality. To add variety and interest to the series, I went to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to research the paintings on display and connect with my cultural heritage. My Dutch and Flemish ancestry, and its connection with the Dutch Reformed Church, made relating to the detailed realism and hidden symbolism of the vanitas more relevant to me than Catholic iconography. The sumptuous draping and layering of fabric with its wrinkles and folds, plates hanging half off the table, wilting flowers and rotting fruit, are all depicted with ravishing beauty. Did I mention the insects? The closer you look, the more you see.
Using the language of painting to communicate contemporary environmental concerns, I staged the floral arrangements with domestic objects brought from our homes. Some objects were vintage, others were reproductions, many were antiques passed down through a maternal line. Jeanette dyed fabrics and made jam from nonnative plants; other textiles were purchased from fabric stores my mother and I visited.
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While the paintings that inspired this series are beautiful and compelling, they also depict the colonialism inherent within the objects due to their implied histories. My work is informed by a proud heritage but must also acknowledge my fundamental connection to this history. The nonnative and invasive species in my photographs contain the botanical legacies of imperialism, global trade, and human migration. The species depicted in Contingent Existence were intentionally brought to North America to fulfill aesthetic, medicinal, culinary, and landscaping needs—or unintentionally as stowaways in pots or ship ballasts. The existence of these specimens in Michigan are the result of human intervention. The project is about the migration of plants, insects, birds, and aquatic creatures, and how humans were responsible—due to their migrations and their intentional and unintentional acts.
Each of the seven Northern Renaissance-inspired still life photographs has a corresponding species list and notes that indicate origin and history of introduction to North America.
Production of the artwork was supported through a sabbatical leave provided by Calvin University.
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About the Artist
Jennifer Steensma Hoag is a conceptual artist working in photography and video. She holds an MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology. Awards include a Wendover Residence with the Center for Land Use Interpretation and grants from Target Corporation and Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs. Her work has been exhibited nationally in the U.S. and internationally, including at PH21 Photography Gallery’s Project Room in Budapest and in the exhibition Environment Documenta at Millepiani Exhibition Space in Rome (curated by LoosenArt). Publications include Minding Nature, Aquifer: The Florida Review Online, and The Hopper. She is a professor at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Find more of Jennifer Steensma Hoag’s work at www.jennifersteensmahoag.com.
All images by Jennifer Steensma Hoag.