My interdisciplinary practice is at a critical point of transition. Having completed a PhD in plant molecular biology while developing a parallel career in floristry and installation art, I now need focused time and support to consolidate these strands into a coherent, long-term direction. To date, much of my work has been made around other commitments, without the resources to deepen material experimentation, develop new collaborations, or embed within institutional networks.
I wish to undertake a development period to deepen the material, conceptual, and collaborative strands of my interdisciplinary practice. I aim to expand my skill set beyond floristry into new material disciplines that allow for a more enduring engagement with plant forms. I plan to train in woodwork (Blackhorse Workshop), glassblowing (Gather Glass), and natural fibre techniques (weaving/cordage courses in Sussex). Inspired by works like Giuseppe Penone’s steel trees, I’m interested in translating ephemeral botanical material into sculptural forms that retain ecological sensitivity.
I will work with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, where I hold existing relationships with Professor Caroline Lehmann (savannah ecology), the Archival Team (Olwen Grace & Lorna Mitchell), and horticulture staff. I also intend to reconnect with Emma Nicolson (Creative Scotland) and her partnership with the Plant Humanities team at Kew, to create interpretive work informed by ethnobotanical research.
I will approach mentors and training providers directly, creating a structured schedule to balance skill-building, research, and collaboration. This is an ambitious shift: embedding myself more fully within plant science and material-led practices to grow a network spanning academic, craft, and curatorial fields. It will culminate in a new phase of work integrating sculpture, research, and ecology.
Rooted in both plant science and contemporary art, my practice explores the morphological development of plant forms and their deep interconnection with human experience. With a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology and nearly a decade of floristry experience, I combine scientific expertise with a highly intuitive, material-led approach to working with plants.
Through site-specific installations, curatorial projects, and public-facing works, I aim to foster deeper ecological awareness by encouraging people to engage with the plant life that surrounds them. If awarded the Dover Prize, I would develop new work in Darlington that responds to its specific landscapes, histories, and ecosystems—creating sculptural forms and participatory installations that invite reflection on place, biodiversity, and our relationship with nature.
My projects are grounded in collaboration and community engagement, building bridges between science, craft, and public art. Working with local archives, green spaces, and community groups, I would explore Darlington’s unique botanical narratives to create work that resonates locally while contributing to wider ecological dialogue.
By bringing interdisciplinary, ecologically focused art into public spaces, my aim is to inspire greater appreciation of Darlington’s natural heritage and raise the profile of the region as a site for ambitious, environmentally attuned creative practice.
My practice centres on the morphological development of plant form—a field I approach as both a plant science researcher and contemporary artist, recognising their intrinsic interconnectedness. I hold a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, where I studied the genetic architecture of leaf shape in the genus Begonia. I also have nearly a decade of experience as a florist, working between Cape Town and the UK. These two paths—scientific and artistic—have shaped how I work with botanical materials: intuitively, responsively, and with a deep sense of temporality. My work explores the ecological and aesthetic relationships between humans, plants, and place. It spans large-scale installations, curatorial projects, ephemeral arrangements, at-home experiments and exploratory essays. These investigations are often collaborative and site-responsive. A recent example is ‘Heterophylly’, an installation I created for the London Design Festival in collaboration with Company, PLACE, Rio Kobayashi, and Webb Yates. As curator of Ensō House, I organised a number of exhibitions, including ‘Plants in Parallel’, a group exhibition of artists with plant-centred practices. In 2023, I was artist-in-residence at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where I worked with the maize archives of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Barbara McClintock. At the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, I worked closely with Emma Nicolson (then Head of Arts, now Head of Visual Art at Creative Scotland), and exhibited in ‘The Silent Archive’ at Inverleith House. As a contributing writer for Plant Magazine, I examine the cultural, symbolic, and morphological dimensions of plant life through research. Born to Chinese immigrant parents in post-apartheid South Africa, my heritage informs a perspective shaped by adaptation, impermanence, and resilience. My work resists extraction and commodification, instead prioritising reciprocity and coexistence. I aim to create art that fosters deeper ecological awareness and repositions plants not as passive subjects but as collaborators in shaping our cultural and material worlds.
Do you have a degree in visual or applied arts at undergraduate and/or post-graduate level? Please provide details. (200 words)
I do not hold a formal degree in visual or applied arts at undergraduate or postgraduate level. However, my background combines scientific research with extensive hands-on experience in artistic and curatorial practice. Through completing a PhD, I developed strong skills in self-directed research, critical thinking, and long-term project development—abilities that directly support my creative work. Alongside this, years of experience in floristry and installation work have given me a deep sensitivity to materials, composition, and spatial aesthetics. These practices have allowed me to cultivate an intuitive and process-led approach to making. Curatorial experience has further sharpened my eye for visual dialogue and thematic coherence, while also deepening my understanding of how to frame and communicate artistic ideas to diverse audiences. Working across these different modes has enabled me to build a robust, interdisciplinary practice that is both reflective and materially engaged. While I have not followed a conventional art school path, I bring a unique combination of scientific rigour, aesthetic training, and practical experience that continues to shape my work as a contemporary artist.
I do not hold a formal degree in visual or applied arts at undergraduate or postgraduate level. However, my background combines scientific research with extensive hands-on experience in artistic and curatorial practice.
Through completing a PhD, I developed strong skills in self-directed research, critical thinking, and long-term project development—abilities that directly support my creative work. Alongside this, years of experience in floristry and installation work have given me a deep sensitivity to materials, composition, and spatial aesthetics. These practices have allowed me to cultivate an intuitive and process-led approach to making.
Curatorial experience has further sharpened my eye for visual dialogue and thematic coherence, while also deepening my understanding of how to frame and communicate artistic ideas to diverse audiences. Working across these different modes has enabled me to build a robust, interdisciplinary practice that is both reflective and materially engaged.
While I have not followed a conventional art school path, I bring a unique combination of scientific rigour, aesthetic training, and practical experience that continues to shape my work as a contemporary artist.
While I have not yet received arts-specific grants or awards, I have been recognised and supported in other professional contexts that reflect the strength and potential of my interdisciplinary practice. My PhD in Plant Molecular Biology was fully funded by the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh, a competitive scholarship awarded for academic excellence and research potential. This support enabled me to carry out independent, long-term research that continues to inform my creative work today and also provided living expenses for the entire 4 years of my degree.
In 2023, I was selected as a New Wave Creative by the British Fashion Council, an initiative that highlights emerging talent across fashion, design, and visual culture. This recognition was awarded for the originality and innovation of my artistic practice, which bridges plant science, installation, and material-led exploration.
I have consistently initiated and organised artist-led projects alongside my broader interdisciplinary practice. These self-created opportunities have allowed me to build collaborative networks and experiment with alternative modes of creative exchange. From site-specific, experimental shoots with photographers that I resonate with to moving imagery projects with videographers and musicians that gather environmental sounds from the forest, self-created projects are core to my practice as funded projects are difficult to come by.
One such project was The Carnation, a self-published zine created in collaboration with ceramicist Jade Paton. The zine focused on photography and floristry in response with one another, and expanded into commissioned installations. Most notably, we created installations for ‘Historical Glitch: Doing it for Vogue’ at the Norval Foundation, a performance engaging with queer practices and culture. The project ran while I was based in South Africa and concluded when I relocated to the UK, but it remains an important early example of my commitment to self-directed, collaborative publishing.
I am currently continuing an ongoing project with artist and landscape architect Hayden Malan, titled Pear_ed. This is a long-distance collaboration in which we document and reflect on our shared encounters with unusual or culturally significant plants across South Africa, the UK, and the Netherlands. The project exists across images, texts, and informal fieldwork, exploring how plants connect us to place, memory, and one another. It has also had two physical manifestations in the form of ‘Hypothesis I’ and ‘Hypothesis II’ which was held at A4 Arts Foundation.
These initiatives reflect my belief in artist-led platforms as vital spaces for experimentation, dialogue, and cross-disciplinary connection—particularly within ecologically and materially focused practices.
Yes, I was commissioned as part of The Silent Archive, a group exhibition at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), supported by Creative Scotland and curated by Emma Nicolson, then Head of Arts at RBGE. The exhibition explored hidden narratives within botanical archives, and my contribution drew directly from my PhD research on the morphological diversity of Begonia.
During my doctoral work, I investigated the genetic architecture behind the complex leaf shapes of Begonia, a genus comprising over 2,000 species. Despite efforts to quantify this diversity, the evolutionary and ecological nuances of leaf form resisted simple classification. My artistic response combined scientific documentation—photographs, scans, and analytical diagrams—with sculptural forms made from bamboo and Begonia leaves.
These morphologically distorted configurations were installed within the gallery to prompt viewers to question what is deemed “ordinary” in plant form, and how human classification systems shape our perception of nature. The work also reflected critically on the colonial entanglements of botanical collections, drawing attention to the tensions between preservation, extraction, and ecological reverence. This commission allowed me to translate scientific inquiry into visual language, contributing to a broader public understanding of biodiversity, morphology, and the complex relationships between people and plants.
No, but the two prints that I made for the Silent Archive exhibition were acquired by the University of Edinburgh’s Plant Science Institute. I am applying for this prize as I hope it will allow me to develop the skills needed to create sculptural work that still draws attention to the materiality of the natural world but holds greater value as an art object.
My journey as a florist has been documented throughout the last decade but there is no feature of my work as an interdisciplinary artist. Most recently I was interviewed for a feature in Toast Magazine:
https://www.toa.st/blogs/magazine/cynthia-fan
I am not. Up until now I had been exploring my creative career independently.
Yes, I was invited to participate in the MolySabata artist residency in Lyon, France, that was hosted in 2022 in collaboration with This Humid House (Singapore). I was also selected as an artist-in-residence for the Celia and Wally Gilbert Artist Residency offered at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for individuals that are interested in working at the intersection of art and science.
Email: cynthiafancf@gmail.com
Address: Flat A, 167 Isledon Road, London, London, N7 7JP, GB
Local Authority: London Borough of Islington
