The last time we looked at Diana Scherer's work the German artist had developed a project that, inspired by the dynamics of plants, forced roots to grow in a certain way, allowing her to create rugs and tapestries made by hacking the root system.
For her experiments Scherer was inspired by Charles and Francis Darwin's researches about plant biology and their "root-brain" hypothesis, that is that roots behaved as do lower animals with their apex seated at the anterior pole of the plant body where it acts as a brain-like organ. Scherer's first experiments were prompted by her will to look at the intelligence of plants in her work and turn the root system into an intricate tapestry.
Scherer continued throughout the years her exercises in root system domestication that led her to develop a series of soil tiles or geotextile swatches. She also started creating larger and more complex pieces.
In the mid-'90s Scherer hoped to study at London's Central Saint Martin and become a fashion designer, but then she changed her mind and studied art.
In a way she managed to make her fashion designer dream come true when one of her organic creations – a dress made with roots – was displayed at London's Victoria & Albert Museum as part of the exhibition "Fashioned from Nature" (2018 – 2019).
This January Scherer will instead be the protagonist of an exhibition entitled "Hyper Rhizome" at Droog (Staalstraat 7B, 10JJ Amsterdam, from 18th January to 24th February 2020).
The new work is the continuation of the project "Exercises in Rootsystem Domestication" and consists in a series of growing objects and plantroot weaving studies supported by scientific and technological research that the artist has been carrying out for quite a few years with biologists, ecologists and engineers from TU Delft Materials Experience Lab and Radboud University in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
For this installation tackling the themes of growth and fragility, the artist grew various wall hangings from roots: Scherer approaches roots as if they were yarns and the swatches forming the "Hyper Rhizome" exhibition turn the natural network of the root system into intriguing textiles.
Working on this project Scherer shifts between disciplines, from design to art, craft and science: there's architecture in her natural structures, geometry in her patterns, interior design in her rugs, fashion in her delicate dresses or lace-like thin, fragile swatches of roots and textile art in her suistainable fabrics.
Last but not least, there is also technology: Scherer creates her tapestries of roots using 3D printed templates (around which the roots conform, weave or braid themselves) and the roots' densely intricate patterns are great metaphors for the networks of computers forming the Internet.
Scherer states on her site that she feels "captivated by the root system with its hidden, underground processes," but the current attention of many fashion designers (especially young ones) for eco-friendly clothes means that (hopefully) her organic textiles and processes may be able to inspire us more sustainable fibers and fabrics.
