CLASS DESCRIPTION
Join The Feminist Lecture Program for a lecture exploring the extraordinary life and work of Maria Sibylla Merian — a seventeenth century artist, naturalist, explorer, insect lover and one of the most remarkable women in early modern Europe.
Working at a time when insects were still believed to be ‘Beasts of the Devil’, which spawned mysteriously, autogenerating from mud, and the idea of metamorphosis was only just formed, Maria Sybilla Merian was a woman in a man’s world. Merian spent her life carefully collecting, breeding and observing caterpillars, moths, butterflies and the plants on which they depended. At the time, her interest in these smallest of creatures would have been almost unconscionable for a lady of good breeding,
Merian’s major contribution to science was her pioneering work on ecology; the observation that certain insects needed certain plants to thrive and grow; by understanding that insects lives were relational to their environment, she anticipated an ecological way of understanding the world more than a century before the science of ecology was invented. She also reflected this in her stunning, genre defying artworks, where rather than depicting individual specimens in isolation, (as was the norm), she showed insects in relation to their food plants, habitats and different stages of their life cycles— creating images that feel strikingly contemporary and aligned with what we would now recognise as ecological thinking.
If this wasn’t enough to pique your interest, she was also an adventurer. In 1699, at the age of fifty-two, Merian travelled with her daughter Dorothea to Suriname, where she studied and recorded the extraordinary plants and insects she encountered there, many of which had never been seen by western scientists. The resulting publication, Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1705), brought together art and scientific observation in ways that were both beautiful and radically new. (Linnaeus would go on to identify and classify several species directly from her work in this incredible book).
But Merian’s work also sits within the much more complicated history of European colonialism. Her images and observations were made possible in part through the knowledge and labour of Indigenous and enslaved people in Suriname, whose understanding of plants, medicines and local ecologies was often recorded without their names surviving alongside it. Looking at Merian today therefore means holding together both the extraordinary originality of her practice and the colonial structures within which that work was produced.
In this lecture, artist and researcher Luisa-Maria MacCormack will trace Merian’s remarkable life and work, exploring her studies of metamorphosis, her relationship to the history of science and botanical illustration, and the radical implications of her attention to interdependence, transformation and the more-than-human world.
ABOUT OUR LECTURER
The Director of The Feminist Lecture Program, Luisa-Maria MacCormack (she/her) studied Textiles Design at London College of Fashion before turning to Fine Art and studying at the Royal Drawing School in 2014. A practicing artist as well as lecturer and Creative Director, Luisa has recently completed her MA at City and Guilds of London Art School. A founding member of the London Drawing Group since its inception in 2016, Luisa teaches drawing, and Feminist Art History classes across London, as well as exhibiting regularly in solo and group shows across the country. Her work specializes in Feminist Art History and with a particular interest in Ecology, Magico-Religious Practices and our Deep Past.
WEBSITE: https://www.luisamariamaccormack.co.uk/
INSTAGRAM: @luisamariamfineart
__
FAQs
ACCESSING THE LIVE LINK
If you booked to join us live, you’ll be able to find the link to the Zoom webinar via your ticket on the ticketing platform. We do not email out the live link - this means we do not risk the email bouncing and not reaching our students!
DONATE TO FLP
Love what you’re seeing? Help The Feminist Lecture Program to keep our Pay What You Can ticket model, and to continue scheduling an incredible line-up of lectures by donating a little extra.
You can send us a ‘tip’ via our PayPal link here: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/my/profile
RECORDING
A recording of the lecture will be sent out by The Feminist Lecture Program after the event finishes, within 2 hours of the end of the class. This email will also contain any resources/reading list the lecturer shares.
Please add hello@feministlectureprogram.com to your email contacts to ensure you receive the recording as expected.
Please note that the recording will expire 14 days after sending.
PAY WHAT YOU CAN
Everyone is welcome to join this Pay-What-You-Can class. We suggest a donation of £20, however, we understand that may not be possible for everybody. Please be honest and pay what you can afford so that we can continue to offer our sessions on a donation basis.
MORE FLP…
Can’t get enough? The Feminist Lecture Program has our very own digital archive, where you can find some of the best past lectures from our back catalogue to rent and watch ON DEMAND. Check out our ever growing collection here: https://thefeministlectureprogram.vhx.tv/
Follow us on Instagram @thefeministlectureprogram
And check out our sustainable merch from FLP Studio at https://feministlectureprogram.com/shop & @flp__studio
And that's it!
We're really looking forward to you joining us x