protected plants

 

Each piece in the Protected Plants series depicts a plant enclosed in a glass box of acid- ree glass. Each piece has a Latin title of my own creation, which seems to be the Latin name for that particular plant. The use of Latin/taxonomic names allows for a uniform naming of the various species worldwide, independent of differences in native languages. The classification of plants according to Latin/taxonomic names, like the wider scientific belief in the knowability of nature, reflects an anthropocentric view of nature as controlled and regulated by man. The glass dome can thus be understood as a surface for reflection on the relationship between man and nature. Glass protects the plant and tries to keep it intact, while at the same time isolating it from the outside world and limiting its growth and proliferation. Moreover, the plant objects enclosed behind glass simultaneously invite us to observe and study them, while at the same time their obscurity and obscurity of being obscured and unknowable also imply something threatening. In this way, the installations are both a representation of the beauty of nature through artistic representation and a wild strangeness of nature that is uncontrollable, unrepresentable and wild. In the works enclosed by a glass drum, I have placed more emphasis than ever on the question of the isolation and immediacy of plants and the view. The opaque glass abstracts the work into blurred outlines, making its interpretation uncertain, to the extent that it is unclear to the viewer whether he is looking at an artificial preparation or a living plant behind the glass. I am also concerned by the tension between the transition between the material and the figurative, and the resulting paradox that the closer we look at the work, the more elusive the compositional elements become, as if we were experiencing the inverse of the tromp l'oeil effect, a technique that is important in the still life tradition. Placed in an open-air setting, the tensions and dichotomies that pervade the work are amplified. They are a reminder that the relationship between man and nature, and the artistic representation of this relationship, are in a constant state of change and transformation. Man is a part of nature and lives in a symbiotic relationship with nature, which he at the same time moulds in his own image and exploits according to his own needs. Even today, in an age of ecological approaches and green movements, which are gaining ground under the threat of climate change, man has not ceased to see himself as a superior being above nature, and continues to intervene and regulate natural  processes, often in the interests of protecting the environment.