Florist

SHOWstudio, Bruton Place, London

Artist: Guy Bourdin, Daniel Brown, Michael Howells, Nick Knight, Jeffry Mitchell and Mary Temple.
Medium: Mixed
Run of show: November 10 - January 13, 2011
Venue: SHOWstudio, Bruton Place, London

Running in the dead of a bleak winter, Carrie Scott and Nick Knight set out to invigorate the London landscape with an exhibition titled Florist. It ran from the 10th of November 2010 to 13th January 2011 and included major work by Guy Bourdin, Daniel Brown, Michael Howells, Nick Knight, Jeffry Mitchell and Mary Temple.


Press Release:

As one of the main genres of Western art, still life has celebrated our earthly delights since the 16th century. Densely packed canvases have captured inanimate materials and ephemeral organic objects, celebrating food and flowers in abundance. In more modern art, simple still lifes have been used as a neutral basis for formal experiment. Today, the genre has mostly been cast aside in favour of a more conceptual aesthetic. Florist sets out to show just how powerful the natural grace of a simple flower can be. Through the lens of the photographer we watch as blossom becomes at once abstracted and sharpened and in the hands of the sculptor we discover the curves and bends of organic form. And foliate forms have, of course, inspired the greatest fashions in haute couture history, from the expansive bloom-scattered canvasses of Worth's crinolins to the corolla-inspired handspan waists and budding skirts of Dior's New Look. Seeing all these things together -- the sculptural handling of a flower, the vivid flattening of flora in a photograph, and the intense burst of embroidery across cloth -- puts one thing into sharp relief: these works of art are actual veritas to the unfolding of nature.

This exhibition also marked a major landmark - SHOWstudio.com's ten years of innovation, experimentation and creation. To mark the passing of this first decade, SHOWstudio.com has commissioned key SHOWstudio.com contributors to 'say it with flowers' and create their own floral tribute to help us celebrate. With contributors ranging from Craig McDean to Yohji Yamamoto to Dame Vivienne Westwood to Julie Verhoeven, a host of artists, fashion designers, musicians and models have all come together to create an exhibition that will literally bloom as the month’s progress; from week to week new submissions will be added to the show - a perfect tonic to the dormant season, and a reflection of the ever-expanding, ever-changing nature of the World Wide Web.

Juxtaposing the art tradition of the still-life with the intransigence and ephemeral nature of fashion, and the cutting-edge technology that has become SHOWstudio.com's leitmotif, Florist reinvented our view of flowers as art, fashion and artefact. A fitting floral tribute to ten years of SHOWstudio.com's revolutionary innovation.

Contributors included Guy Bourdin, Daniel Brown, Simon Costin, Giles Deacon, Andy Hillman, Michael Howells, Jonathan Kaye of The Gentlewoman, Kenzo, Jeffry Mitchell, Gareth Pugh, Martine Sitbon for Rue du Mail, Solve Sundsbo, Julie Verhoeven, Dame Vivienne Westwood, Matthew Williams, Yohji Yamamoto. Expect this carefully cultivated list of creatives to grow as our exhibition unfolds into spring.

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