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Artworks

Julius von Bismarck, I like the flowers (Opunti a Vigas Indira), 2023

Julius von Bismarck

I like the flowers (Opunti a Vigas Indira), 2023
Pressed and dried plant, mounted on stainless steel plates
95 x 34 cm
37 3/8 x 13 3/8 in
Courtesy of the artist, Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf
Photo: Tino Kukulies
The works borrows its name from a well-known children’s song, and as in the song, the beauty of nature seems to be the main theme. However, in contrast to the...
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The works borrows its name from a well-known children’s song, and as in the song, the beauty of nature seems to be the main theme. However, in contrast to the childhood practice of pressing flowers between the pages of a book or creating herbaria to classify and archive vegetation, the work converts large-scale plants and small trees into almost two-dimensional forms. Suspended delicately in space, they become likenesses of themselves reminiscent of floral wallpaper or backdrops. The plants are not mere images of floral beauty. They also allude to the brutality inherent in the Western conception of nature. Scaled up in size, the violence of the works’ production becomes impossible to ignore. In an elaborate process, the plants are boiled and then robbed of their third dimension with the help of a 50-ton hydraulic press and press oven, and finally attached to a thin stainless-steel plate. The series consists exclusively of species not native to central Europe, whose names have been changed to suggest European heritage, an alteration which testifies to the appropriation of both nature and culture.
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