In a metropolis like Taipei, parks offer a much-needed respite from the daily chaos. Amidst these green sanctuaries, residents and visitors alike find themselves reconnecting with nature and discovering beautiful plants like the Heliconia rostrata, that you may spot in Xiangshan Park.
This plant's defining feature is its pendent or drooping inflorescence, which is composed of vibrant red bracts. The bracts bear a striking resemblance to the powerful claws of a lobster or the beak of a toucan, showcasing bold and eye-catching red hues.
So, this could be a perfect inspiration for a creative project, but would we obtain more intriguing results if we combined the natural with the digital world?
Contemporary artist Mat Collishaw actually did so in his latest exhibition currently on at London's Kew Gardens. A UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2003, Kew is a world-famous scientific organisation, internationally respected for its outstanding collections and scientific expertise in plant and fungal diversity, conservation, and sustainable development in the UK.
Collishaw's "Petrichor" (on display at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art until 7th April 2024) blends the splendor of Kew Gardens with the influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to prompt visitors to ponder about humanity's ambivalent relationship with nature.
The show opens with "Columbine" and "Whispering Weeds", animated versions of Albrecht Dürer's watercolour paintings "Columbine" and "Great Piece of Turf".
Widely regarded as early masterpieces in the field of botanical art, Dürer's paintings are transformed into animation, bringing these pioneering depictions of the natural world into our times.
Venturing deeper into Collishaw's world, visitors encounter "The Venal Muse." This collection takes inspiration from Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal but also evokes Des Esseintes's taste for the disquieting and the perverted and his obsession with fantastic plants with the appearance of artificial skin ridged with false veins that looked consumed by syphilis and leprosy, in Joris-Karl Huysmans' À Rebours.
The unsettling sculptures in the exhibition are a provocative interpretation, casts of orchids that take on a dark, almost grotesque demeanor, manipulated to mimic venereal diseases and pointing therefore at human depravity.
The "Alluvion" series paints a fascinating picture, seamlessly merging 17th-century still life paintings of Dutch Old Masters with contemporary AI. What appears to be a bouquet of flowers actually conceals insects: in these new interpretations of the original paintings, insectified flowers mimic a female mate to attract pollinating insects (a phenomenon known as Pouyannian mimicry, common in orchids where several species mimic female bees and wasps).
The paintings, generated using Artificial Intelligence, are a way for the artist to employ the insect/flower relationship to hint at the human/machine metaphor and at interactions between human/artificial intelligence.
The large-scale projected work "Even to the End" employs instead pioneering technology to immerse viewers in a 9-minute sequence inspired by the innovation of the Wardian Case and the transportation of plant specimens around the globe.
Created in collaboration with video artists based in Ukraine, the video is accompanied by Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, a composition which draws inspiration from Virgil's Georgics, a poem about agriculture and growth, and how humanity's efforts to cultivate the land is constantly under threat from destructive powers.
Moving from specimens in glass, passing through the oceans and reaching an island of dense forests, "Even to the End" is a journey through a natural world brought to life by a computer's creativity.
In "Heterosis," Collishaw explores the possibilities of Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs), blending genetic algorithms with blockchain technology to facilitate the hybridisation of mutable digital flowers.
The artist used this medium to tap into the tulip mania of the 17th century. At the time tulip bulb prices reached unprecedented levels and this experience offers a modern twist on this historical fascination, allowing participants to act as breeders and cultivate their own animated flowers, or join forces as collaborative artists, creating novel species and increasingly intricate and exotic blossoms for personal enjoyment or potential sale.
Taking the form of an intricate 19th-century "Pepper's Ghost" illusion (and not using any digital tricks this time…), "Albion" is a large-scale installation in which Callishaw resurrected the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest.
This ancient oak, standing for over 800 years and associated with the legend of Robin Hood, takes on an eerie quality. Created using laser scanning, "Albion" reflects the artist's commentary at the time of the Brexit referendum. Its title refers to the ancient oak tree as an emblem of England, a ghost-like apparition supported by chains and crutches that vanishes when you get closer or walk around it. Reflecting the political and social climate during the referendum in Britain, the installation serves as a haunting metaphor for England.
The exhibition also features "The Centrifugal Soul," a zoetrope reimagining a Victorian innovation. The spinning Centrifugal Soul depicts an animated scene of bowerbirds and birds of paradise as they perform elaborate courtship displays against an ornate backdrop of flowers in perpetual bloom.
"The Centrifugal Soul" explores how aesthetic diversity has evolved through the natural instincts of courtship and evolution and reflects on humanity's seemingly never-ending search for aesthetic appeal.
"Petrichor" encourages visitors to explore the interplay between the natural world and innovative technologies: Collishaw's works combine botanical art traditions with cutting-edge technology, showing that AI can be an integral part of the creative process. The artist also uses this dichotomy to point at the interconnectedness of all things and at the intriguing results we may achieve when we merge the old and the new.
Yet, there's more: through his striking and eerie installations Collishaw offers a glimpse into the complex relationship between humanity and the natural world, reminding us that preserving the beauty of our planet remains paramount.
Indeed, if we keep on destroying Earth, one day we may be confronted by the same scenes from Collishaw's project "Greenhouse," in which a revengeful nature has reclaimed our cultural and artistic spaces, including London's National Gallery.
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