{"id":21299,"date":"2023-04-19T10:51:57","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T08:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gardensillustrated.com\/?p=104900"},"modified":"2023-04-19T11:35:02","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T09:35:02","slug":"bio-designer-zena-holloway-goes-back-to-basics-with-her-wheatgrass-sculptures","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/rss_feed\/bio-designer-zena-holloway-goes-back-to-basics-with-her-wheatgrass-sculptures\/","title":{"rendered":"Bio-designer Zena Holloway goes back to basics with her wheatgrass sculptures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bio-designer Zena Holloway goes back to basics with her organic sculptures, fashioned from wheatgrass grown at home. Words Paula McWaters, Photographs Andrew Montgomery <\/p>

By Molly Blair\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 19 April 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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A love of nature \u2013 and particularly of the sea during her career as an underwater photographer \u2013 has led artist and bio-designer Zena Holloway to a whole new world of experimentation. For the past few years, she has been creating sustainable sculptures, vessels, wall hangings, homewares and fashion pieces from a lacy, web-like fabric she grows herself from wheatgrass roots. The result is extraordinarily beautiful, ethereal even: webs of coiled and interwoven roots that she manipulates to create the most intricate of patterns.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 Andrew Montgomery<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div>\n

It was reading an article on bio-design, about people growing material from mushrooms, that first excited her interest and, after dabbling with that, she started experimenting with grass roots, which are ideal because they naturally mesh together. \u201cEach cereal crop has a different root structure,\u201d she explains. \u201cRye grass is crinkly, like wool, while wheatgrass root is long, straight and strong.\u201d The turnaround is quick: Zena germinates the wheatgrass seeds in a light room in her home-cum-studio in west London, for ten to 14 days, monitoring and watering it carefully before harvesting. Nothing is wasted, as the grass she cuts off is used as chicken<\/a> feed.<\/p>\n

Nature knows much more than I do. <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>

The key to Zena\u2019s multi-textured designs \u2013 many of which echo the corals, jellyfish and sea fans she has seen underwater \u2013 is a beeswax template, which she carves with repeated patterns for the roots to grow into. Intriguingly, Zena reports that the seeds make a snap, crackle and pop noise when she waters. \u201cIt\u2019s as though they are communicating, saying \u2018Hey, the water\u2019s this way\u2019. Nature knows much more than I do. She is the best collaborator.\u201d<\/p>\n