Flowers Forever

Immediately upon entering, you are immersed in the gigantic installation Calyx by British artist Rebecca Louise Law (1980). The work, which consists of over one hundred thousand strung-together dried flowers, forms a sensory space and invites you to unwind and take the time for a moment of stillness and reflection.

(Super)natural beauty

Within various religious traditions, flowers symbolize enlightenment, purity, and paradise, while in ancient Greek myths they stand for divinity and transformation. The exhibition features objects and paintings that depict these myths, including the well-known story of the mythological figure Narcissus, after whom the famous spring flower is also named.

Science

Botanical drawings and herbariums from the 18th and 19th centuries illustrate how closely art and science are connected. The contemporary work *Of Palimpsests and Erasure* by the Dutch artist Patricia Kaersenhout (1966) reveals the hidden layers of knowledge and history. Through large, colorful tapestries, Kaersenhout questions how we view, preserve, and pass on nature and heritage. With this work, the artist responds to the botanical book *Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium* (1705) by Maria Sibylla Merian, which is also on display in the exhibition. Merian's detailed drawings of Surinamese insects, flowers, and plants made her world-famous, but it is less well known that her knowledge largely came from enslaved local and African women.

Valuable merchandise

Flowers Forever also highlights how flowers became increasingly important in Western art, particularly in 17th-century still lifes, where they symbolized wealth and status. With the Tulip Mania in the Netherlands, the flower trade became a large-scale speculative business for the first time in the 17th century. British artist Anna Ridler (1985) brings the influence of stock market fluctuations to the forefront in a surprising way in her video installation Mosaic Virus (2019): a time-lapse on three screens shows how the growth and blooming of a tulip is influenced by the fluctuating price of Bitcoin. Although flowers surround us everywhere, British artist Tracey Bush (1964) shows that we often recognize an advertisement faster than a specific flower species. In her colorful collages, she transforms packaging of well-known products into the outlines of a dandelion, a daisy, and a poppy.

Political charge

Flowers often symbolize change and protest and frequently appear in aristocratic coats of arms and national symbols. The exhibition presents various cartoons and political posters. Canadian artist Kapwani Kiwanga (1978) also uses flowers to address social issues. In the work The Marias, she displays two paper representations of the peacock flower in a yellow room. Enslaved African women carried the seeds of this flower hidden in their hair as a means of terminating an unwanted pregnancy. The work poignantly conveys how, in the same period when Victorian women folded paper flowers as an innocent pastime, others were forced to use flowers as a last resort for survival and resistance.

Technology

Work by Studio DRIFT is also on display. Meadow is an inverted landscape consisting of mechanical flowers that open and close. The installation refers to the transience of the ever-changing seasons and natural growth processes. Meadow is the result of DRIFT's research into how an inanimate object can mimic changes that express character and emotions. With his interactive installation Extra Natural, French artist Miguel Chevalier (1959) invites you into a virtual garden, where he digitally brings various seeds and flowers to life. His colorful creations move along with you as you walk through the space.