Memorial for Forgotton Plants 2.0

Memorial for Forgotten Plants is a long-term project by Louise Flaherty that reflects on the loss of native plants from our suburban landscape. The research for this project began in 2018 where she repeatedly drew all 86 species in the Grey Box & SA Blue Gum Woodland community as a reconstruction of the original vegetation communities in the Adelaide CBD. This physical act of remembrance was seen as an attempt to commit their details to memory. 

For this iteration of the project, Louise has worked with Belinda Gehlert - Musician/Composer and Tanya Voges - Dance Artist, to create a multimedia, participatory version of Memorial for Forgotten Plants. Louise invites the public to join her in this memorial act by writing the names of these 86 species and then wrapping these lists around the trees in the Botanic Gardens.

Memorial for Forgotten Plants aims to open-up an intimate space for the public to acknowledge the loss of these plants and gives hope that with the right amount of care we can see some of these plants reappear again. 

This work was originally commissioned by OSCA for the Park Lands Project and further development of this project has been funded by Arts South Australia / Department of the Premier and Cabinet.