VEGETABLE VISION

The Credo Bonum Foundation and Gallery present:

VEGETABLE VISION

An exhibition by Emma Roulette, Dimitar Solakov, Alexandra Angelova, Zornitsa Gurkova, and Miglena Tsvyatkova

June 17 – July 19, 2025
Opening: June 17, 6:00 PM

“One summer I attended a botany course where I learned to identify around 200 plant species from various local ecosystems. On the very first day, our instructor told us that we all suffer from what’s called ‘plant blindness’—when we walk outside and look at the vegetation, we just see a big, blurry green mass. But by the end of the course, after learning to recognize different species and the techniques used to do so (leaf edges, vein patterns, arrangements, etc.), that green mass turned into a vivid mosaic of biodiversity, made up of individual species, each with its unique morphology. Once we acquire the vocabulary, we begin to see with much more detail. I call this ‘Vegetable Vision’.”

The Vegetable Vision exhibition draws inspiration from the artistic practice of American artist Emma Roulette. Although she works as an illustrator for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and others, she is also a professional zoologist and entomologist (an insect specialist). Her experience in this rigorous scientific field has helped her develop a personal concept of nature as an art object—nature as a collection of equal and equally important elements that is both vibrant and impersonal. A nature in which no species is more significant than another.

Joining Emma Roulette in this exhibition are four Bulgarian artists with their own observations of specific natural scenes. Their connection to the botanical world goes back years—it is deep, individual, and in one way or another, has led them to the “vegetable vision” Emma describes. In the great green tangle of images, they have discovered the outlines of an individual life that places humans as equal participants in a complex ecosystem.

In four short videos titled (re)Action, Dimitar Solakov‘s camera passively observes a natural setting. Upon closer inspection of this seemingly mundane scene, something happens. A change occurs that makes the entire setting completely different—just seconds later.

Alexandra Angelova is a land art artist. She works with nature as a medium, as material, but also as a philosophical system in which human intervention has clearly defined parameters set by the natural scene itself. For Vegetable Vision, Alexandra presents a replica of her land art sculpture Cocoon, created in 2023 during the Art and Nature symposium in the village of Gabrovtsi.

Zornitsa Gurkova is a writer who has long experimented with flower photography. By placing individual botanical specimens in an almost laboratory-like setting, she plays with light and color. Though the plants appear isolated from the natural landscape they come from, they acquire a new voice and strength—to speak about the delicate boundary between life and death.

Miglena Tsvyatkova, a textile artist, takes a very different approach. She works directly with nature, creating plant imprints on fabric. The plants “draw” on the textile surface with natural pigments. These traces become the beginning of a visual language in which each shape and hue carries memory, presence, and life. Upon them, Miglena builds additional images through freehand embroidery—a delicate, almost ritual act in which the thread becomes a voice. In this way, nature and the human hand enter into a dialogue, creating subtle, multilayered narratives.