I have currently been working on a series of photographs investigating ideas of beauty within real and artificial foliage. This investigation utilizes flowers as a catalyst and draws references from art history and the floral industries. The photographs take the form of traditional still lives, wallpaper and fabric décor as well as scientific imagery.
The still life images have a kinship to 17th century paintings, mixing flowers from multiple climates and seasons in one bouquet. In my images there is a mixture of artificial and grown flowers speaking to the globalization of the floral as well as the artificial flower industry and it’s parallels with the bioengineering of flowers. There is a play between the real and artificial: and an inability to fully distinguish between the two in the images, question their differences and similarities.
In addition to the still life photographs, some of the imagery depicts a mixture of cut and artificial flowers in vacuous black backgrounds. The forms and patterns in these images reference décor, natural plant growth, and genetic structures from bioengineered flowers. For example, one of the prints, Delphinidin uses the molecular structure of delphinidin, a rare pigment that creates blue colors in flowers. This pigment is highly coveted by horticulturists and bioengineers who have been trying to merge it with roses for almost 170 years. The blue rose is often thought of as the “holy grail” of the flower industry. The use of real and artificial flowers echoes the construct, perfection and beauty of one another and speaks to human’s desire for control over and perfection of the “natural” world.