Devon-born, London-based artist Xanthe Burdett paints where bodies and botany meet. Working largely in a spectrum of greens, she layers leaves and vines over faint human silhouettes, collapsing the space between the figurative and the vegetal. Her paintings invoke mythology and ancient cosmologies to propose a kinship in which people and plants are, at times, one and the same.<\/p>\n
Burdett begins with a sketch, then turns to the Renaissance-era cartoon method to move her drawing onto the surface\u2014placing a substance like charcoal between the preparatory composition and the substrate before tracing the lines. From there, she methodically builds up foliage until the image reaches a lush density. As she puts it, superimposition becomes a way of \u201creimagining the body as a site of ecological and mythic transformation,\u201d she says. \u201cIn an age defined by environmental catastrophe\u2014wildfires, biodiversity loss, and climate anxiety\u2014the work functions both as a refuge and as a space for imagining alternative ways of being with the more-than-human world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her figures are presented as both \u201chost and terrain,\u201d carrying an undercurrent of renewal as \u201cflesh gives way to nettles, brambles, and tender green shoots,\u201d she adds. Many canvases look to deities, including Venus, the Roman god of beauty and fertility, and Janus, the god of transitions and beginnings.<\/p>\n
Recent titles map the breadth of Burdett\u2019s interests across medium and scale:<\/p>\n
This fall, the artist will be in residence at Soho Revue, developing a collection that explores the Greek tale of Daphne\u2014who morphed into a laurel tree\u2014as a way to conceptualize transformation amid climate catastrophe. The project extends her ongoing interest in entwining human form and plant life through a richly green palette and layered imagery.<\/p>\n
For those following along, updates on the new series will be shared on Instagram.<\/p>\n