The Secret Life of Flowers, Silent Witnesses to History
In this project, artist Taryn Simon returns to flowers as protagonists of important geopolitical events.
When we think of flowers, probably the last thing that comes to mind is politics. Prior to politics we might thing of love, of gardens, of the seasons of the year, of landscapes, perhaps even of the place that flowers have had in art throughout history. But in general it’s easy to believe that flowers and politics inhabit two very separate territories.
Artist Taryn Simon realized that there is at least one circumstance in which both will coincide: the signing of international treaties. For all the solemnity and protocol characterizing these events, almost invariably the places where the rulers and leaders meet and, especially, the table at which they sit, is nearly always adorned with flowers.
In Simon’s eyes, this coincidence offers at least a contrast, and perhaps even a paradox. How to reconcile, for example, the presence of a beautiful flower arrangement with the assent of virtually all the powers of Europe, in 1938, to the annexation of Czechoslovakia by Germany? In one of the photographs of the event, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Neville Chamberlain sit around a small table and upon it sits a bouquet, presumably colorful, and entirely alien to one of the most decisive antecedents to World War II.
Based on this image, the artist began to think about the flowers “as silent witnesses to man’s determination to control the economy, geography and the political destiny of the world.” It’s a constant which traces the history of agreements as important as those that led to the establishment of the International Monetary Fund (in 1944), or one known as the Bratislava Declaration in which Eastern European countries made explicit their adherence to Soviet communism.
The journey was not merely documentary, but was also inspired by the work of George Sinclair (a refined English horticulturist of the 19th century who dehydrated specific flowers to preserve the memory of each) and by the lists of species recorded at the Aalsmeer Flower Auction, a multinational company based in the Netherlands which currently sells up to 20 million flowers a day. Simon united official history with the present day through these shared points of geopolitical and economic contact: the desire for power and international control.
Based on this image, the artist began to think about the flowers “as silent witnesses to man’s determination to control the economy, geography and the political destiny of the world.” It’s a constant which traces the history of agreements as important as those that led to the establishment of the International Monetary Fund (in 1944), or one known as the Bratislava Declaration in which Eastern European countries made explicit their adherence to Soviet communism.
The journey was not merely documentary, but was also inspired by the work of George Sinclair (a refined English horticulturist of the 19th century who dehydrated specific flowers to preserve the memory of each) and by the lists of species recorded at the Aalsmeer Flower Auction, a multinational company based in the Netherlands which currently sells up to 20 million flowers a day. Simon united official history with the present day through these shared points of geopolitical and economic contact: the desire for power and international control.
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