Is it natural to surround ourselves in the natural?

My last blog showed how Heather Barnett used biological imagery to form repeat patterns for use on wallpaper. The use of microbiological imagery was interesting as it was unique, but it made me realise the extent to which natural imagery surrounds us; we have plants in our homes, and we give flowers as gestures of affection. We are surrounded by floral patterned textiles and wallpapers, and wood grain exposed in our floors and furniture. Flicking through this month’s Elle decoration demonstrates that being surrounded by the ‘natural’ seems natural.



My Bed - Now thats 'Natural'!


We are encouraged to eat naturally, to sleep naturally, and to encourage natural light into our living and working spaces. We are now being sold energy packages as ‘green’. It seems the ‘laws’ of nature play a bigger part in our lives than we realise. ‘Going Green’ is clearly a currently sexy issue, so to what extent is this natural? And to what extent is the ‘natural’ a cultural construct? Or nature’s dictatorship?


In Future Natural George Robertson et al. discuss the term Futurenatural.
“The construction and reproduction of ‘nature’, the ways that this ‘nature’ is then instrumental in defining what is or is not natural, and how formulations of ‘what is natural’ eventually attain the status of convention that present ‘nature’ and ‘the natural’ as seemingly unproblematic.” (1:1996)
Robertson et al. suggest nature is a cultural construct formed over years and years of human intervention into our environment. Suggesting our ideas of ‘nature’ are highly constructed and manipulated.
“’nature’ is like all concepts, a product of discourse” (1:1996)

Ester Kneen

Robertson, G et al. (1996) Future Natural. London: Routledge
Elle Decoration. March 2008