The Renwick Gallery has devoted a single gallery to what would appear to be a collection of five sculptures and a dozen or so drawing/paintings of botanicals. At first glance, a modest installation. Appearance are deceiving. The five "sculptures" are moundlike; islands, if you will. Placed sparsely on top of each is a little group a hollow clear glass stumps. A few have brightly painted representations of self fungus attached. All have intricately painted representations of tree rings painted on the cut surfaces. And there's where the fun begins.
Blue Flower with Snakes
Serpens primula nubes
Grape Flower
Anthurium vinifera
Pear with Windows
Pyrus fenestrata
When you download an app on your smartphone, or use one of the large smart tablets provided by the artist, you can focus them on the ends of the stumps and an Artificial Reality computer generated plant appears to grow out of the end of the sculptures. Each is unique, and each connects to one of the botanical works of art on the walls.Even better, the modest catalogue of the exhibit includes all the botanicals, a fictional post apocalyptic history of each flower--AND, a scannable stump impression that works like the sculptures in the gallery! It's all quite clever times two, and I found it delightful.
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