2001 · 50 × 50 cm (approx. 20 × 20 in) · Genesis Mandalas · by Stephen Meakin
The Lady's Slipper Orchid is Britain's rarest native wildflower. One wild plant remains in England. Its location is kept secret. It is guarded around the clock by Natural England.
Darwin spent years studying its pouch, the distinctive curved lip that traps visiting insects, coats them in pollen, then releases them to carry it elsewhere. Plant and insect co-evolved across millions of years until neither could exist without the other. A mechanism of such precision that Darwin used as evidence of evolution itself.
Thirty is the number of days in the moon's cycle, the number of degrees in each sign of the zodiac, and the age at which Christ began his ministry. Stephen counted thirty of these flowers and placed each one with the same precision that the flower itself embodies.
From a distance, the composition reads like a frost crystal or a nebula. Up close, each orchid is identifiable, its pouch and petals exact.
The orchid has been collected, coveted and nearly lost. Stephen returned it to abundance.