Gilbert and George are always a trip – good and bad – but that’s the whole point maybe. Scapegoating, an exhibition showcasing their latest work is currently running at the White Cube gallery in Bermondsey, south London until 28 September. While themselves (as usual) and nitrous oxide bottles dominate this time, these self-confessed urbanites have …
Plant Curator was slightly disappointed that the traditional flower bouquet given to winners at medal ceremonies was absent from this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow: Wouldn’t a bunch that celebrated some of Scotland’s amazing native flora, such as a selection of thistle species, have been a nice touch? Still, we can’t complain as it was …
Two recent plant art photographic books worth contemplating while laying in a grassland meadow or alternatively standing in the Tate Modern bookshop. Scott McFarland, Snow, Shacks, Streets, Shrubs McFarland is a wonderful photographer. His extensive focus on gardens and plants works in his favour here too. This collection of previous years’ work has a good selection of such …
A huge turkish inspired flower carpet, a monoculture flower installation, exhibitions that stretch the wonderful world of plant art, and a good old british flower market. August is looking good. 1. Poppy at Guildhall Library The talent of flower installation artist Rebecca Louise Law was fully on show this year at The Garden Museum’s Garden …
Frank, a.k.a Franktele1’s profile picture on Flickr is of a man in a cowboy hat. Something suggests that it’s probably not him. But it is hard to know for sure because he’s kept personal information to an absolute minimum: all we know is he’s male, ‘super ugly’ and joined Flickr in 2009. What he does …
Another plant inspired poem for Sunday. Ted Hughes’s (1930-98) collection of poems about the natural world – Flowers & Insects – was published in 1986 and included this one: Sunstruck Foxglove. We follow it with a reading of the poem taken from The Ted Hughes Society website by a certain Nicholas Bland, a second year student at …
If you want to cover a wall in interesting plant material or get a chair moulded out of it or even a lampshade made from it, then look no further than this company based in Austria. ORGANOID® produces 100% biodegradable material from ‘renewable resources’ that designers can then fashion into new and exciting objects. A …
The following images demonstrate the ability of trees to inspire, calm and astonish all at the same time. 1. Silvia Camporesi, Il bosco bianco, 2012. This photograph won the category of best Contemporary Photography in last year’s Francesco Fabbri Prize for Contemporary Art. Is further proof required that trees are living, sentient beings? Artist’s website …
American artist Jeff Koons is having another good year. A retrospective is underway at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and since the $58.4 million sale last November for Balloon Dog (orange), he currently holds the title for the most expensive living artist. He rather entertainingly divides opinion: A kitsch misogynistic fraud …
More Public Domain artwork, this time from the book ‘A monograph of Odontoglossum’ by James Bateman. Published in 1874 by L. Reeve & co., London. Checking the current standing of the species names via the Catalogue of Life and The Plant List, it looks as if all the species illustrated below have been reclassified into …