'Delights' / Epiphytes Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam / 2004

A figure hangs high up in the palm greenhouse of the Hortus Botanicus. An image constructed from undefined transparent forms, made from colour prints of micro-scans of crystallised salts. The whole process of selecting and forming the crystal, and scanning and printing it, is like preparing an elaborate banquet. A statue for the plants themselves, built from chemical compounds, especially the micro-nutrients and trace elements that are eaten by plants, and that are-in small quantities-absolutely vital for their survival.
One of the most essential differences between plants and animals is the fact that plants can digest inorganic material and use it to grow and multiply.
The image is a colourful display of elements, an homage to saltpetre, phosphates and chlorates, rhodanides and cyanides, to magnesium, potash and sodium salts and all those other delicacies. A plant eats stones.
 
Size: 8 x 5 x 7 m. Materials: inkjet films, steel wire.
Group-exhibition with, a.o, Van den Ban, Fens, Geelen, Halmans, Riebeek, Schole, Vendel, Volger.