discourseonplants.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AND LISTINGS:

A DISCOURSE ON PLANTS
March 2 - May 31, 2013
Opening Reception: March 2, 6-8pm

Scott McFarland. Cheltenham Badlands, Olde Base Line, Rd., Caledon, Ontario, 2012.

Darren ALMOND Soledad ARIAS Wolfgang ELLENRIEDER Atsushi FUKUI Micah GANSKE
April GORNIK Jeff GRANT Jefferson HAYMAN Judith HOFFMAN Katie HOLTEN Naomi
SAFRAN-HON Naoki KOIDE Tanya MARCUSE Didier MASSARD Scott MCFARLAND Jason
MIDDLEBROOK Richard MOSSE Shayok MUKHOPADHYAY Vik MUNIZ David NASH John
OREILLY Alejandro ALMANZA PEREDA Rona PONDICK Jon ROBSON Cristina Lei
RODRIGUEZ Shen SHAOMIN Jennifer STEINKAMP Katy STONE Paul SWENBECK Steve
TOBIN Daniel TRAUB Phoebe WASHBURN Sterling WELLS Yi ZHOU
NEW YORK February 20, 2013 In A Discourse on Plants, RH Gallery showcases the regal, pervasive,
and occasionally ominous plant life confronted in contemporary art. Presenting depictions ranging from the
cultivated and domestic to what Werner Herzog memorably described as the harmony of overwhelming and
collective murder, the exhibition demonstrates the ways in which plants function as markers, metaphors and
subjects of an anthropocentric world. Rather than focusing on one particular approach, the exhibition embraces a
multiplicity of contemporary artistic practices demonstrating political, art historical and social strata through plant
life. Shown together, the works produce a virtual arboretum.
The violence of natures pervasive growth and the asphyxiation necessary for survival lends its imagery to
subjects dealing with human brutality and war. Darren Almond titled his series of photographs documenting
blackened trees in a devastatingly polluted region of Northern Siberia after Alain Resnais 1955 film about
Auschwitz, Night + Fog. The dying trees stand for neither the sites history as Norilag, the largest of Stalins
Gulags, nor Auschwitz in particular, but rather a collective memory which resonates in Almonds dark, skeletal
forests. Richard Mosses The Dark Side of the Moon depicts a breathtaking Congolese landscape, largely colored
pink by infrared film. The artists Infrared series documents the Congo with Kodaks discontinued Aerochrome
Infrared film, developed by the US military to distinguish live jungle from camouflage in Vietnam.
Naomi Safran-Hon has been documenting evidence of war in Israel with photographs which have become
the foundation for her work. Her imagerys lack of specificity, however, transmits a visceral response that reaches
beyond its initial scope. The works in this exhibition began with photographs of decaying walls in a village from
which Palestinians were forced to flee. Naomi then layered the images with concrete and lace seeping through its
cracks.
In a contemporary American context where dying metropolises are celebrated for the reclamation of their
agrarian past, the familiar image of weeds growing out of skyscraper windows has come to represent the death
of Fordist prosperity. Daniel Traubs photographs depict overgrown, rapidly multiplying weeds that have taken
residence in abandoned empty lots scattered throughout Philadelphia. Within a contemporary context of fetishized
urban greenery, these invasive weeds become a stratified symbol reflecting political and social issues of the
American city. Micah Ganskes Tomorrow Land series looks at cities destroyed by toxic waste completely given
over to persistent plants capable of survival where human life is no longer sustainable.
While the exhibition invites critical exploration of the increasingly fraught relationship between man and
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nature, several artists expose the dyadic relationship between the urban and rural, highlighting romantic views of
the pastoral. April Gorniks drawing Bower captures a moment of serenity within an intimate view of the pamphilli
gardens in Rome. After studying revered trees for her MFA thesis, Judith Hoffman made the drawing included in
the exhibition in order to create an environment of tranquility and reflection within her studio, while Jefferson
Hayman explores a sense of nostalgia and timelessness in his photographs of trees in Central Park. Jennifer
Steinkamp uses advanced technology to create the illusion of real space with projections depicting
anthropomorphized plants in Dance Hall Girl.
Integrating romantic ideologies with chimerical imagery, Rona Pondicks hybrid sculpture Dwarfed Pine
seamlessly fuses miniature copper hands to the branches of a bonsai tree. Yi Zhou presents a magical golden tree
while Didier Massard constructs miniature landscapes from his imagination to create otherwise impossible
photographs. Scott McFarlands panoramic photograph Cheltenham Badlands, Olde Base Line, Rd., Caledon,
Ontario is a composite built from many photographs taken over time and then digitally stitched together.
Inconsistencies are revealed through subtle anomalies, such as incongruous foliage or inconsistent shadows, and
allow for an image that contains expanded time as opposed to the singular moment of traditional landscape
photography.
The natural environment has always been a fecund source of artistic inspiration. Its depiction has allowed
artists to metaphorically address wide-ranging cultural, social and political issues within and beyond the
boundaries of contemporary arts locus in the urban site. Cognizant of natures aesthetic history in art, A
Discourse on Plants brings together the works of over 30 artists in sculpture, installation, photography, drawing
and painting, to create a labyrinthine environment that, in highlighting natures opposing qualities of serenity and
violence, invites viewers to contemplate human experience through plants.

Please contact Anna Nearburg at anna@rhgallery.com or 646-490-6355

to request additional information or images relating to this exhibition.

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