What Humans Do To and Together With Flowers
2024, participatory project
We have always wanted to create an artwork with flowerbeds.
Flowerbeds are found everywhere in cities, and citizens look after them with much enthusiasm without hoping for anything in return. Nevertheless, despite flowers being so loved and cherished by people, they in fact are not something that we ourselves are that familiar with. If anything, we are the type of people who tend to let them wither and wilt quickly.
The shape and color of flowers are designed to appeal to insects, and there is no reason for humans to be attracted to them. They are not even depicted in the cave paintings at Lascaux because they are not edible. So why are people drawn to flowers? It all began with this simple curiosity.
There was another reason for producing this work. Up until now, our works centered on just the two of us being subject to certain kinds of unusual experiences, allowing viewers to relive those experiences by us presenting them through videos. However, we came to feel that perhaps we were monopolizing our experiences, and that it might be better to share the experience itself with everyone.
Meanwhile, politics is that which attracts attention in times of unrest and turmoil. As art is a mirror of the times, it is only natural that political art has also gained prevalence, and before long it has come to be said that “all art is political.”
What we thus did was look up the word “politics” in the Kojien dictionary (widely regarded as the most authoritative dictionary of Japanese). In doing so, we found the following definition: “What humans do to and together with others.” “Others” as it is mentioned here, likely refers to “other people.” However, having interacted with a variety of “others” through our work and practice, it seemed constrictive to refer to just fellow “humans” as others. We therefore attempted to replace the notion of others as something far more removed from us humans: flowers.
“What humans do to and together with flowers” …doesn’t that essentially signify a flowerbed?
This work was a participatory project in which participants were invited over the course of the exhibition period to plant, cultivate, and take care of flowers in flowerbeds shaped in the kanji characters of “大” “丈” and “夫” created in the outdoor plaza of Art Tower Mito.
A group of volunteers named the “Flowerbed Club” was formed whose activities included learning about flowers, deciding on color schemes, and holding regular meetings to discuss operations, and tending to the flowerbeds. Following instructions on posters and flyers, visitors were welcomed to bring their own flowers of choice and plant them in the flowerbeds, or simply enjoy looking at them. Through the windows of the observation deck on the top floor of the museum’s symbol tower, visitors could gain a good view of the flowerbeds, the kanji characters of which together spell out the word “大丈夫” (daijōbu, meaning “it’s okay” in English).
This was not an art project that dealt with a political theme, but rather, an artistic endeavor to have everyone “engage” in politics through tending to flowers while getting our hands dirty with soil. However, as it turned out, it was a summer in which people of all ages, professions, and genders came together through flowers, overcoming the extreme heat, diseases, and pests—united by a single desire to grow flowers while making the best use of their respective fields of expertise. At the end of the exhibition period, flower give-away sessions were held, with most of the “大丈夫” flowers being adopted and thus dispersed to the homes of many of the participants from the general public.
Initially, we had intended for the word “大丈夫” to include a sense of irony, yet the time and space that was created around the flowerbeds was so full of love and happiness to the extent that the artist’s intention seemed trivial.
［External link (Art Tower Mito, Japan)］(Google translation)
Photo Report
4月29日 Briefing session by the artists to recruit members for the Flowerbed Club
5月6日 Considering the color schemes for the flowerbeds
6月8日 Visit to Mito Botanical Park, group planting workshop
7月15日 Considering how to care for the flowers
7月27日 Flower Planting Session for「大」
8月18日 Flower Planting Session for「丈」
9月7日 Flower Planting Session for「夫」
10月5日 Flower Give-Away Session