Plant Passageways

Plant rooms are made of surfaces with motifs from invented Nature. These surfaces create an illusion of depth that helps the former to feel surrounded. None of the motifs that I use exists in this way in Nature. They are pure fiction. I construct them by mixing elements which exist in Nature but in an impossible composition, or by mixing them with elements and impressions alien to it. I want the viewer to believe in them for an instant before realising that they constitute a fictitious composition.

The repetition of the motif is part of this game. I believe that an infinite tangle surrounds me, and on examining it closely, I become aware that it is a single vertical motif which is repeated over and over again until the space is formed.

The inside topography of these rooms is structured in accordance with the type of path that I want the viewer to take. Some of them consist of a passage between two spaces, while others block the way to the back of the room, thereby creating an ambiguous situation. We do not know if the room is much longer, where the vegetation ends, or whether the whole interior is full.

A sculpture must function as a whole. However, the detail is the door towards the space that is not seen. Absence becomes presence on account of awareness of what we see. Abstraction of the motif in the distance would be a way of covering that space shown.

In the distance a wall appears like a shapeless mass with signs that can be guessed, referring to Nature or to complex ornamental structures. On approaching the detail, as in imitation, it is the difference of outline between the figure and the background that enables us to recognise the motifs and interpret them. The myopic look forced to imagine the countryside distanced from the detail is provoked by the sculpture.