The world has dropped its petals and I scooped them back up
2024
Full room installation, 350 x 275 cm
Discarded flowers from Amsterdam cemeteries, latex, clay, wire, steel
Installed at Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam, during their exhibition series “Making Waves”
About the installation:
“The dying flower is a well-known symbol of mortality, but it is also a symbol of transformation. It marks the end of one thing and the beginning of the next, forcing you to empty out the stinky water from your vase with the potential of bringing home new flowers. Silke Riis likes to think of her sculptures as picked flowers: Slowly ageing and changing, browning and breaking, but precious because of it.
At Nieuw Dakota she rejects the dying flowers’ connotation with death and instead embraces them as a symbol of ‘change’, the ultimate breeding ground for new beginnings. Her floral installation is made exclusively with “expired” / pre-loved / rotting flowers either donated by friends, discounted at supermarkets, or dug out of the trash bins of cemeteries. These flowers get a second life for the weekend and you are welcome to take one home with you.
“Reality has grown old and gone senile; after all, it is definitely subject to the same laws as every living organism – it ages. (...) Apoptosis is natural death, brought about by the tiredness and exhaustion of matter. In Greek this word means ‘the dropping of petals’. The world has dropped its petals.”
- Olga Tokarzcuk, ‘Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead’ (pg. 65)”
