Gardens Illustrated
Bio-designer Zena Holloway goes back to basics with her wheatgrass sculptures
Words Paula McWaters, Photographs Andrew Montgomery
A love of nature – and particularly of the sea during her career as an underwater photographer – has led artist and bio-designer Zena Holloway to a whole new world of experimentation. For the past few years, she has been creating sustainable sculptures, vessels, wall hangings, homewares and fashion pieces from a lacy, web-like fabric she grows herself from wheatgrass roots. The result is extraordinarily beautiful, ethereal even: webs of coiled and interwoven roots that she manipulates to create the most intricate of patterns.
It was reading an article on bio-design, about people growing material from mushrooms, that first excited her interest and, after dabbling with that, she started experimenting with grass roots, which are ideal because they naturally mesh together. “Each cereal crop has a different root structure,” she explains. “Rye grass is crinkly, like wool, while wheatgrass root is long, straight and strong.” The turnaround is quick: Zena germinates the wheatgrass seeds in a light room in her home-cum-studio in west London, for ten to 14 days, monitoring and watering it carefully before harvesting. Nothing is wasted, as the grass she cuts off is used as chicken feed.
Nature knows much more than I do.
The key to Zena’s multi-textured designs – many of which echo the corals, jellyfish and sea fans she has seen underwater – is a beeswax template, which she carves with repeated patterns for the roots to grow into. Intriguingly, Zena reports that the seeds make a snap, crackle and pop noise when she waters. “It’s as though they are communicating, saying ‘Hey, the water’s this way’. Nature knows much more than I do. She is the best collaborator.”
At first, Zena grew the grass in squares, but she has gradually moved to more organic shapes with naturally frayed edges. Now she is experimenting with growing in varying thicknesses. “For a lampshade, I need it to be firm enough to stand up on its own, whereas a collar or a shawl needs to be lighter and more flexible.” She can also manipulate the relative stiffness of the fabric by finishing with natural waxes and oils. “The root is great in that it soaks up whatever you give it.” Some is left in its natural pale colour, while some is dipped into natural dyes such as logwood, gallnut, lac beetle and cochineal to create new hues.
I still feel as though I am in root kindergarten.
“I still feel as though I am in root kindergarten. With everything I grow, I learn something new,” Zena says. “Sculptural pieces are fun because they capture people’s imagination, but now I would like to move more into fashion. Fashion is a dirty industry and I can use this as a platform for change. We need a wider conversation about the materials we use and about protecting our environment.” For now, her work is conceptual, but Zena foresees a wider future. “I’m not a dressmaker, I just want to get these things out there – to show people what’s possible and get them thinking about using natural materials.”
Her dresses, one of which she will be exhibiting at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year, are ‘pinned’ together around a mannequin using wooden skewers or lightly stitched together in sections. In time, Zena would like to work with a dressmaker to create shaped templates that she can grow to size.
We need a wider conversation about the materials we use and about protecting our environment.
The root material is every bit as durable as a straw hat, in that you wouldn’t leave it out in the elements but you could expect it to last for many years if you looked after it. “Whether root has a part to play in a sustainable future, I don’t know yet,” says Zena. “But even if it doesn’t, this is a fascinating and aesthetically pleasing concept that helps us think about nature in a different way. Bio-design is such a far-reaching subject, we should definitely be exploring it more.”
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