Sari Maxfield's 'Flora & Fauna': Exploring the Symmetry of Nature

Using the title words can be interpreted as an attribution to the goddesses Flora and Fauna, both eminent of fertility and protecting nature. In Roman mythology, Flora was the goddess and protector of flowering plants. She was also the provider of a magic fertility flower that had impregnated Juno, resulting in the birth of Mars. Similar to Flora, Fauna was an animal goddess, giving life to all animals and keeping them safe.

Maxfield’s Flora & Fauna can very well be this magical flower of fertility, encapsulating the idea of fecundity through both a mythological event and nature as we know it. The carefully placed human appendages in the collage reflect the animalistic Fauna theme, while the symmetrical floral nature of the pattern and shape represents Flora.

Upon viewing Maxfield’s piece, we instantly see what one may view through a kaleidoscope; shapes and colors perfectly aligned on all sides in a unique pattern. When looking at it more closely we see the handiwork of the ink washes that render it slightly imperfect.

Blaise Pascal once said, "Symmetry is what we see at a glance.” All of the elements seem to be in the right place, but when looked at closer, one can realize its distinguishable features. In nature we see the same thing, like in the cross sections of fruit or the blossom of flowers. We often associate beauty as being the result of symmetry- we have been, since the ancient Greeks had historically established it. But, the truth is that nothing in nature can possibly be symmetrical, and this is something that Maxfield brings to question in her piece. She is imitating nature in its normal behavior, neither exceeding nor underestimating its limits.

You can see Maxfield's Flora & Fauna now until the 29th of this month.

By Alana Voldman