Maria Catarina Silva (Gaia, 1992) is currently a research intern in the DRAWinU project – Drawing Across University Borders: Learning, Researching, and Communicating through Drawing in the University (PTDC/ART-OUT/3560/2021), funded by FCT. She is studying plant forms through drawing, developing work from nature and on the archive of the Herbarium at the Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Porto (MHNC-UP). She completed MA in Drawing and Printmaking in 2017 at FBAUP, with the project “Wander to Wonder: An exploration of the limits of perception in drawing and printmaking”. She has a BA in Sculpture (FBAUP, 2014).

Theses title
All is leaf: The metamorphosis of plants in the Herbarium Collection of the Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Porto – a drawing research

FCT reference
2024.00514.BD

Abstract
Making the plant world visible can transform the perception of being-in-the-world. The aim is to study the collection of the Herbarium at MHNC-UP, using drawing to consider how technical images and botanical science procedures contribute to Goethe’s considerations on plant morphology. The project will also develop through drawing from nature, exploring the characteristics of each context, and linking scientific representation with the divergent thinking of artistic practice. This approach seeks to get closer to the way of being of plants and to examine the relevance of drawing as a means to deepen visual perception. Identifying patterns of repetition and difference will allow graphic speculation on Goethe’s hypothesis, where the leaf is the generative element of all plant transformations, and the exploration of matrix forms that already contain, in potential, new botanical hypotheses. Critically studying an archive organized through categorization and systematization may contribute to the discussion of Goethe’s notions of unity and multiplicity.

Supervision
Paulo Almeida (supervision) and Cristiana Costa Vieira (co-supervision)

More info

• B013-EF0F-70C2