Discover a new series of 24 works by the British artist Kate Friend at There Are Always Flowers For Those Who Want To See Them at the Lyndsey Ingram gallery. 

The works were created at Vatican-approved Marian apparition sites where alleged visions of the Virgin Mary have been reported.  

Each work comprises a photograph of a single flower or type of flower found growing wild at the apparition site. The flower is then isolated from its environment and photographed inside a travelling reliquary: a gold open-fronted box that was transported to each site. The interiors are full-colour ‘voids ’in reference to reliquary interiors. 

The artist was drawn to the question of whether holy ground could affect the flowers that grew there and whether it could shape her work. 

There are hundreds of Marian apparitions - alleged visions of the Virgin Mary - throughout the world but only 16 that are approved by the Holy See. This balancing of spirituality with rationality was a sensation the artist wanted to feel up close. Over the course of seven months, Friend travelled to four approved Marian apparition sites, seeking flowers at each location: Fátima, Portugal Notre-Dame du Laus, France, La Salette-Fallavaux, France, Basilica Parrocchiale di Sant'Andrea delle Fratte, Santuario Madonna del Miracolo, Rome, Italy. 

Each work is titled with the name of the flower, the site at which it grew and was photographed, the month, and the year. There are 24 works in total, in reference to the biblical interpretation of 24 as symbolising Divine order and completeness. The colours in this series relate to the liturgical calendar and colour significance in the Catholic Church.