Retrospective in Cherries
The cherry tree and its fruit and blossoms hold different meanings in various cultures around the World. In Japan and China, cherries were first depicted by the Japanese in 710 A.D. During this time, cherry trees were transplanted from remote mountainous regions to urban areas. The trees were regarded as sacred beings and worshiped. Later, cherries were used as metaphors for the ritualistic suicides of Samurai warriors, who often decorated their military equipment with cherry blossoms before entering battle.
In modern culture the cherry has many symbols, virginity, purity, hope, and freedom. In the work of Emma Scott-Smith cherries have haunted the landscape and dominated the canvas in oversized, claustrophobic battered and bruised. In her first solo exhibition ‘The Last Hope Series’ (1997) she developed a rich inner World peopled with haunting, taut, weak yet powerful figures, desolate, rootless and raw. The cherry signifies passion, voice, a scream, an narrative of hope and the fight that freedom in your human form is never lost. This retrospective is in part of a bid to gain funding to further explicate our human connection and humanity. By developing a virtual exhibition with interactive abilities.
