Flowers for Love and Goodbyes, 2024 calls upon us to question our impulse to judge nature by human standards. Webb challenges our instinct to assign to it notions such as cruelty and destruction, why we might put a higher value on the life of a “beautiful” butterfly over the survival of a “creepy” predatory spider.
The title of the drawing alludes to the symbolic meanings given to cut flowers, lilies might symbolise purity, innocence and love, but are also commonly associated with funerals. In each instance though they represent a human instinct to control, cultivate for otherwise tame the natural world. There is also a secondary significance for Webb whose stepfather was a flower seller and the artist himself would sell flowers door to door as a child.
14 x 11 in.
