Flowers

 

Willem de Rooij
Saara Ekström
Makoto Azuma
Claire Morgan
Zadok Ben-David
Nick Cave
Tony Feher
Zachari Logan
Alice Aycock
Brian Eno
Jim Hodges
Eko Nugroho
Jennifer Steinkamp
Marc Quinn
Isa Genzken
Cai Guo-Qiang
Amy Yao
Ji Wenyu and Zhu Weibing
Petah Coyne
Miguel Chevalier
Dinh Q. Lê

 

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Willem de Rooij Bouquets (2002 – )
‘Willem de Rooij began working on the Bouquet series – a group of floral sculptures – in 2002, then in collaboration with Jeroen de Rijke (1970–2006). Since then he has created 11 Bouquets, three of which will be presented at the Shanghai Biennale. Across various human cultures, bouquets of flowers are charged with a range of meanings with regard to different events and contexts. Some of de Rooij’s Bouquets have clear social or political connotations; others have merely formal ones. What they all have in common, though, is that like a play or film, if not reconstructed, they exist only as an idea. Furthermore, all works are collaborations with a florist responsible for works’ execution and maintenance during the exhibition period.’

 

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Saara Ekström Limbus (2011)
‘In the new photographic series, Limbus, floral and fruit arrangements created in natural settings continue the tradition of nature morte still lifes. Ekström’s pictures blend crime-scene photography with the aesthetics of memorial altars erected at accident sites.’

(Excerpts from Saara Ekström’s works)

 

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Azuma Makota Exobiotanica (2017)
‘When it comes to flower arrangements, Japanese artist Makoto Azuma is quite literally pushing the boundaries out of this world. It all started 20 years ago, when the one-time rock musician took a part-time job at a flower shop. There he began to appreciate the power and beauty of plants. The experience made him think: “if flowers symbolize Earthly beauty, how can I push nature’s boundaries? How can I transport beauty to where it doesn’t currently exist?” His answer: bring flowers to outer space. Now, as part of an ongoing experimental artistic series, Azuma and a crew of florists, balloon experts and cameramen are launching carefully selected flower arrangements into the atmosphere.’

 

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Claire Morgan Fluid (2009)
‘Flowers, taxidermied crow, fishing hooks, strawberries, nylon.’

 

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Zadok Ben David Blackfield (2012)
‘Israeli artist Zadok Ben David, who lives and works in London, created this interesting installation titled Blackfield. Made up of more than 12,000 small steel cut plant sculptures that spring out from a blanket of sand covering the gallery floor, there is a surprise element as one walks around the installation; what initially appears to be all black reveals itself as color on the other side. Each plant sculpture takes its form from Victorian botanical illustrations which Ben David finds in old text books.’

 

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Nick Cave Flower Soundsuits (2009)
‘Soundsuits, named for the sounds made when the sculptures are worn, are as reminiscent of African and religious ceremonial costumes as they are of haute couture. A multitude of references bring to mind not only disparate cultural traditions but they also highlight Cave’s diverse background and artistic training. Cave studied and danced with Alvin Ailey and created his own clothing line which he featured in a shop he opened and ran for ten years. He is as interested in fashion and cultural, ritualistic and ceremonial concepts as he is in politics, a domain that has always been part of his work as demonstrated by acts of collecting and reconfiguring elements and concealing the identity, race, and gender, of those who wear his suits. Rendering them faceless and anonymous the suits help these individuals transcend the political realm in order to enter the realm of dreams and fantasy.’

 

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Tony Feher Long Term Pillow (1997)
‘Feher’s deteriorating body after his HIV diagnosis is often cited as the inspiration for his choice of supplies. Transient, degradable materials point to the short life cycles of both objects and human beings. On the other hand, the fact that so many of these cardboard, plastic and highly-perishable items are still intact after more than twenty years reveals their durability against all odds— a more hopeful message that echoes Feher’s own improbable survival (he died in 2016). In the late 1980s, an HIV diagnosis implied a death sentence, leading Feher to reexamine his artistic career and legacy. “Long Term Pillow” is the result of such introspection, a cement stone covered with deceptively-cheery bogus carnations. Resting somewhat ominously on the gallery floor, the rock was intended as a cushion for the artist’s dead body. The heavy permanence of the cement deliberately belies the ephemeral nature of human livelihood. Another funerary piece, “Le Roi de Bâton” is a reliquary, or ode to the artist’s life. A collection of his IV fluids, medication and fingernail clippings, this deeply personal assemblage is a sort of altar to Feher’s transitory existence.’

 

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Zachari Logan Purple Carnations, after Rimbaud (2014)
‘​An invocation of the French poet, Arthur Rumbaud. Specifically in his poem “Sonnet du Trou du Cul”/ Sonnet of The Asshole” in which he likens the anus to a purple carnation. This poem is thought to be the only poem he co-wrote with lover and fellow poet Paul Verlaine.’

 

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Alice Aycock Passion/Passiflora Incarnation (2016)
‘New York artist Alice Aycock was chosen by the Coral Gables City Commission on Nov. 18, 2014 to create the first major public art monuments since Coral Gables founder George Merrick’s day. The sculpture depicting passion flowers, which celebrate Coral Gables’ roots as a Garden City, will be installed on Segovia Traffic Circles at Coral Way and Biltmore Way. Aycock’s proposal calls for a large sculpture with fountain features at the intersection of Biltmore Way.’

 

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Brian Eno Memory Flowers (1999)
‘Memory Flowers is 16 speakers facing upwards on stems, playing ambient music.’

 

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Jim Hodges Ghost (2008)
‘The artist assembles a realistic miniature environment enclosed by a bell jar and made entirely of glass butterflies, spiders, and other insects, perched on a mound of dirt sprouting greenery and flowers. Rising in the center of the terrarium and towering over the other elements is a clear crystal plant—a literal ghost haunting its livelier neighbors. The intimate scale and choice of materials underscores the preciousness of the natural world.’

 

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Eko Nugroho Trust Me (2014)
‘Trust Me, a life-size statue of a person covered in flowers. One fist is clenched; the other carries a pistol. Nugroho, known for odd juxtapositions of human-sized statues and objects, suggests that the shadow acts as an important artistic element.’

 

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Jennifer Steinkamp Madame Curie (2011)
‘An enveloping panoramic work reminiscent of Steinkamp’s 2004 video projection The Wreck of the Dumaru, the new piece will activate a field of moving flowers and flowering trees in line with the imagery of Steinkamp’s 2010 work Orbit Without Seasons. Flowers rendered realistically for this new work include marsh marigolds, may flower, chestnut blooms, and hop plants, among many others drawn from a list of over 40 plants mentioned in Marie Curie’s biography written by her daughter, Eve Curie. The seven-channel projection will engage the architecture of the space and will require seven synchronized projections onto three walls of the 4,500-square-foot gallery.’

 

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Marc Quinn Garden (2000)
‘For me the Garden is about desire, it’s about all the flowers in the world all coming up at the same time, in the same place, an idea of a perfect paradise. You’ve got the metal refrigeration unit, the glass top, the tank, the silicone and then you’ve got this delicate image of the living bit, so in a traditional way it’s like body and soul. The idea of mechanics and something that’s alive inside it, even though the irony is that the flowers, in order to appear to live forever, are dead. Sculpture’s about transformation but what I like about the Garden is the flowers appear not to be transformed, however if you touch them you’d find that they’re as brittle as porcelain. I wanted it to be about the manipulation of nature as well. There is no such thing as nature anymore. It’s all culture now. Every landscape you see is a manipulated landscape, every flower has been genetically modified through breeding to be like it is, so these pictures are about The Garden being constructed, not grown, that’s one aspect.’ — Marc Quinn

 

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Isa Genzken Elefant (2006)
‘Americans may know Isa Genzken, if at all, as the scavenger. She stood out in “Unmonumental,” the show that opened the New Museum on the Bowery, for a colorful, shiny elephant of rags, toys, art supplies, artificial flowers, and packing materials. One could picture her prowling Chinatown for whatever caught her eye. One could just as easily picture oneself taking the elephant for a ride.’

 

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Cai Guo-Qiang City of Flowers in the Sky (2018)
‘City of Flowers in the Sky is inspired by Botticelli’s Renaissance masterpiece Primavera. In about ten minutes, using the sunlit sky as canvas, nearly 50,000 customized fabricated fireworks will shoot out smokes resembling thousands of flowers from the Renaissance. As a generous gift to Florence, cradle of the Renaissance, the explosion builds new memories in its name.’

 

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Amy Yao Intercontinental Drift (2016)
‘In “Intercontinental Drift” (2016), an arrangement of fake flowers is installed into the wall, which is then covered by Plexiglas. This work is a subtle reference to the continental drift, a concept (replaced by plate tectonic theory) that suggests continents drift away from each other over time. In Yao’s rendition, she wonders what the drift would be like were it taking place intercontinentally, reframing the conversation all together. This is further accentuated by the fact that the artist had to physically saw into the gallery wall — a literal fusion of the space for art and the art itself.’

 

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Ji Wenyu & Zhu Weibing People Holding Flowers (2007)
‘A huge square formed by 400 identical men of 30 cm high each. They are all wearing suits, holding pink flowers, and seem powerful. ‘People Holding Flowers’ reveals the tacit understanding within the couple. They not only continued Ji Wenyu’s clever and humorous style, but also bear Zhu Weibing’s sensitive expression and cloth crafts’ talent.’

 

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Petah Coyne Portrait of a Marriage (2018)
‘Though she is not a churchgoer today, the sumptuousness of so many Catholic cathedrals imbues her work, and the material lists for her sculptures reads like a shopping list for an especially worldly cardinal with an interest in BDSM. Portrait of a Marriage includes “silk flowers, taxidermy, chandelier, candles, ribbons, black sand from pig iron casting, resin, paint, black pearl-headed hat pins, chicken-wire fencing, wire, cable, cable nuts, quick-link shackles, jaw-to-jaw swivel, silk/rayon velvet, ⅜″ Grade 30 proof coil chain, Velcro,” plus “specially-formulated wax,” a pricey archival material that she developed with a chemist friend and patented. “It’s scalding hot—220, 240 degrees,” she said. “You just throw it and get out of the way.”’

 

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Miguel Chevalier Fractal Flowers (2009)
‘« Fractal Flowers » is a new generation of virtual garden. It’s a new generator which produces gigantic fractal flowers of different sizes, colors and shapes. The vastness of these flowers, as well as their intuative movement, creates an enigmatic dialogue with the visitors. Flowers stoop like a bow in order to welcome the public in this mysterious virtual garden, then display their most beautiful colors and shapes, look at them, merge on colored backgrounds, lean out as to observe close to our reality, to disappear finally out of sight, out of our fascintated look, touched by the living relation with a disappeared virtual object.’

 

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Dinh Q. Lê Pure Land (2018)
‘The effects of the Vietnam war are transfigured by American- Vietnamese artist Dinh Q. Lê into mythological figures for the show “Pure Land”. Harmonious white figures of children in meditative poses or dancing on lotus flowers felt like solace. Elegant and hurling in élan, these sculptures induced a sense of lightness, peace and careless effervescence. But if there is a spirit, it has nothing to do with animist spirituality and everything to do with human havoc. The inspiration for Dinh Q. Lê came from his noticing people, especially babies affected by terrible physical deformities since their birth, in a special hospital. He investigated the subject further, and found out that those physical anomalies were due to the use of a substance called Agent Orange, a herbicide used as a chemical weapon during the Vietnam War.’

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** ET, Hi. Oh, that sounds very interesting. My email is: [email protected]. You can write to me, and I’ll also respond to your email address too. Thank you a lot for hunting me down. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Whoa, a very happy birthday to Bill! 1941, crazy. You’d never know it. Did you guys celebrate appropriately? ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Huh, interesting about ‘Ichi’. I’m not on Twitter, and I haven’t seen hide nor hair of Tony in ages. Interesting that he seems to be at his most active, publishing-wise, in France though. I’ll send him a howdy through his website. Cool that you’re reviewing for Brooklyn Rail. Everyone, Find out what Steve thinks about the much hyped Billie Eilish album here. ** _Black_Acrylic, Shameless looks like a cool resource. Thanks for tipping us/me. The Call is looking very elegant with an edge in that pic, man. Sweet. ** Corey Heiferman, Hi. It’s interesting how if you’re a celebrity you can post a photo of you doing what millions of extroverted, wiseass young guys do behind their high school teachers’ backs but your followers think its exciting and not just dumb. Cool about your vagabond friend and even about the two week imposed deadline. When’s the start date? Nice re: that writer Dominik asked about. Thanks a lot for the response, man. ** Misanthrope, I do try. Yes, do get ‘Negrophobia’. It’s a must. ** Bill, Hi. Tony has a website and a Twitter and apparently is doing lots of stuff to catch up on. I’m in the minority, I guess, who thought ‘Liquid Sky’ didn’t hold up even at the time it was released. Tom Reamy … no, I didn’t know him or even of him. Still don’t. Well, know I know of him, thank to you. I’ll find out more. How’s the work on your new piece going? ** KeatonandToast, Everything’s good with toast. Really, everything. Name something that isn’t good with toast. Wait, it’s … it was …wait, still is your birthday! Happiest of the happys, buddy! What are doing to make today a hugely lot more significant than your usual day? I’m good, working, what else is new. I’m tempted to cut and paste your declaration and post it in the next escort’s guestbook I see. Happy birthday!!!!! ** Okay. I’m giving your flowers today, and you know what it means when someone gives you flowers, obviously. From the heart. See you tomorrow.