Elica segno d'aria - Articles - Say it with flowers

10 March 2007

Say it with flowers

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American painter and bioartist George Gessert (1944, Milwaukee, Wisconsin), a specialist in the hybridization of flowers, has stated: “I hybridize flowers because I believe this practice to be one of the most immediate and complete ways to create beauty.”

But it isn’t necessary to go as far as this exponent of bioart – a process that acts directly on the genetic patrimony of the iris in order to make it the instrument of a personal concept of beauty: the vegetable world in general, and flowers in particular, have always been an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the decorative arts, and after years of inanimate purism seem ready to make a comeback as leading players in painting, architecture and design in all its varied aspects.

In the world of interior design, everything is suddenly in bloom, from building materials such as tiles or flooring to storage furniture to domestic appliances to lighting – freshly enriched with a new voluptuous vitality, they are all brimming over with delicate leaves and petals.
And it doesn’t seem particularly important if this is the new millennium’s version of Liberty styling or simply a way to evoke the kind of sensations that only organic material is capable of: shapes and colours are everywhere, for example,on Patricia Urquiola’s ANTIBODI and Bloomy seating for Moroso, or appearing on Louise Campbell’s VERY ROUND armchair for Zanotta, or on the same designer’s swinging lamps for Poulsen.
But inevitably it is the textile and wallpaper area of interior design that has really welcomed the return of floral ornamentation with open arms. Abandoning the chilly minimalist monochromes of the past few years, textiles have rediscovered flowers and leaves, often taking inspiration from Middle Eastern textile production, with its stylised versions of the lush vegetation of central west Asia.

It’s no surprise, then, that the the decorative work of Florence Broadhurst (1899, Queensland, Australia-1977, Sydney, Australia), has come back into production. The volcanic founder of Florence Broadhurst Wallpapers Pty Ltd monopolised the Australian textile market until her mysterious death at the end of the 1970s with her creations, famous for their nature-inspired bright colours and harmonious balance of form, and exported all over the world.
Today they live again, either in interior décor (Coogee Bay Hotel, Sydney, Australia) or reproduced by designers such as Akira Isogawa and Karen Walker, who have adapted the decorative motifs to the fashion design industry.

Architecture has also not been slow to pick up on this particular decorative trend.
The Dior flag shop, for example, in Omotesando, Tokyo, a Sanaa project – the name conceals the partnership of Kazuyo Sejima and Ruye Nishizawa – is characterised by its aim of expressing all the femininity and elegance of the French fashion house in a way that delineates the profound link between the European brand and Japanese culture.
The building carries the hallmark of Kazuyo Sejima, one of the few leading women in a field – architecture – that is prevalently masculine. The project manages to combine purity of form (perhaps a result of her many years of work together with Tadao Ando) with a decorative expedient on the facade which, using two different levels of facing, makes it possible to reproduce on the exterior surface of the building the delicacy of ornamentation inspired by nature and the antique art of ikebana.

Flowers also feature in the project of the first American monobrand Pomellato, at 741 Madison Avenue in New York, where, in a mingling of ancient and modern, an illuminated sculpture reproduces fibre optic-lit peach blossom. The sculpture is the work of artist Michael Lin, internationally famous for his painted frescoes and floorings, which make use of large-scale reproductions of the traditional floral motifs of Taiwanese textiles.

Ripalta Borrelli