FOREWORD
“Creation goes beyond the canvas. Like a chemical reaction, creation fills its environment. It has an aftermath. I suppose that is what I am really interested in, what the explosion, meeting, gathering of materials leaves behind. What we leave behind.” - Scarlett Raven Knowingly or not, the language of flowers is a language spoken universally. A crimson rose is exchanged between lovers to signify affection; the pale white cap of a snowdrop suggests the conclusion of the winter months; whilst the vivid yellow trumpet of a daffodil heralds the arrival of spring. Furthermore, the painted white lily in its purity and innocence was a Renaissance symbol of the Virgin Mary, as Van Gogh’s triumphant Sunflowers was a burst of happiness and hope within an otherwise turbulent artistic psyche: so too in art this visual language of flowers abounds. But what of the humble corn poppy? There is perhaps no other flower in existence quite so emotionally enduring and symbolically charged. Whilst there is evidence of the cultivation of this particular species as early as 5700 BCE, it was during the height of the First World War and the publication of John McCrae’s ‘In Flanders Fields’, that the poppy found its most popular interpretation. Written and published in 1915 as the Great War raged on, it was McCrae’s poem detailing the growth of poppy fields amongst the graves of the fallen which truly ignited the passions of the public, prompting The Royal British Legion to launch the very first Poppy Appeal and remaining closely rooted in our public consciousness as a symbol of remembrance ever since. In her debut exhibition for Castle Fine Art, Mayfair, artist Scarlett Raven explores the multiple facets of this complex flower. A collection of work inextricably bound to the First World War, ‘The Eleventh Hour’, directly references the date of Armistice Day in 1918: a date etched into the fabric of our history, a date filled with joy and despair in equal measure. It is here then, in this tension between sorrow and elation, dark and light in which Raven’s landscapes thrive and flourish, as the tissue delicate, blood-red blooms of the poppy once grew from the disturbed earth ravaged by war. In collaboration with The Royal British Legion, ‘The Eleventh Hour’ represents the ongoing relevance of the poppy as a symbol of the remembrance of the past, but also the future promise of hope. Akin to the exhibition title, Scarlett Raven’s poppies are charged with a bouquet of significances; they are evocative of magic, of luck and artistic urgency. No stranger to the landscape medium, Raven’s meditations on
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