The Solander Box Playlist
‘The Solander Box Playlist’ - artists’ book. Black Solander box, lined at the base with black velvet. Eight cyanotype asemic floral drawings are stored inside, as well as a cyanotype Spotify playlist code.
The last bookbinding workshop of the year by Kate Holland taught us how to make a Solander box. These are book-form cases that are commonly used to store prints and books.
The name ‘Solander box’ is derived from its inventor; Daniel Solander; who was a Swedish botanist that worked at the British Museum, cataloguing the natural history collection there. He constructed the box as a means to keep samples of flora and fauna in tact during expeditions until he was able to get them archived in the museum. The box also kept the samples safe from light damage.
The story of Daniel Solander stayed with me for some time after the workshop and led me to the idea of making my own floral samples as a tribute to various songs that had flowers in the title. Each song was transcribed in to an asemic drawing in my sketchbook that in turn became a tangible drawing made from wire to resemble a plant cutting. Because the Solander box was designed to keep its contents safe from light I enjoyed the irony of making cyanotype prints of my song flowers, using light as a means to create my flowers rather than damage them.
The cyanotype flowers were printed on to 640gsm cotton rag paper. This weighty surface was chosen due to the rigorous process of washing out the chemicals after the print had been exposed. It was also important to me that although the samples resemble flowers that are traditionally portrayed as delicate, I wanted them to be robust enough that the viewer could handle them as objects.
‘Ivy by Frank Ocean’ - cyanotype on cotton rag paper.
‘Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls’ - cyanotype on cotton rag paper.
‘Sunflower by Post Malone and Swae Lee’ - cyanotype on cotton rag paper.
‘Roses by Outkast’ - cyanotype on cotton rag paper.
‘Blue Orchid by The White Stripes’ - cyanotype on cotton rag paper.
‘Daffodil Lament by The Cranberries’ - cyanotype on cotton rag paper.
‘Build Me Up Buttercup by The Foundations’ - cyanotype on cotton rag paper.
‘Willow by Jasmine Thompson’ - cyanotype on cotton rag paper.
The suite of floral prints became The Solander Box Playlist which is available to to listen to by scanning the following code on your Spotify app:
