There is much to be said – and much being said – about the conditions and the state of nature at a moment in history where multiple species face extinction, where lush sceneries turn into wastelands and ice withdraws to its fluid state with unforeseen consequences. This tale of steady, catastrophic evolution seems to hold no place or time for meditation, when action appears to be the only solution.
The exhibition "Flora Urbanica" offers a provocatively quiet response to these issues in its exploration of the urban flora and its amalgamation with the architecture that surrounds it. With the title’s spin on the Enlightenment’s craze for collection, classification and identification of natural phenomena, artists Saman and Sasan Oskouei (perhaps best known to our readers in the past as Icy & Sot) adopt a somewhat different strategy than the careful documentation of the world at play in the scientific systems of taxonomy that still hold power today: in their artistic vision we are powerlessly enfolded in the ongoing processes of a nature woven into the very fabric of the cities we inhabit.
In the exhibited works the intricate anatomies of plants and seeds are turned into abstract forms and transposed onto canvas and sculptural objects as if they were extensions of the creations of nature with a will of their own. Seeds breaking through soil, or the slow unfurling of a leaf in spring morph into compositions that seem to shift gradually and kaleidoscopically before our eyes. Fluid lines and earthy textures, occasionally trapped in architectural structures, contribute to a sense of being suspended in time, subjected to the same cyclic and mystic rhythms as these vaguely recognizable species.
The materials used range oil paint, wooden and steel sculpture to plants. Central to the exhibition are two embroidered works based on patterns created by the artists and produced by their mother Sima Bahramghanad, residing in Tabriz, Iran. Embroidery has historically adopted its ornamental imagery from the organic forms of nature, its tactile properties closely associated with the (female) body. Typically confined to the intimacy and privacy of the feminine sphere, it has held a quietly subversive power as a promoter of secret histories, far removed from the ecosystems of public discourse. Here, embroidery tells an equally intimate tale of familial bonds nurtured across continents. It emerges as an act of resistance against given political conditions, which is deeply ingrained in the DNA of the Oskouei brothers’ artistic practice.
The evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) claimed that when fertilizing flowers “bees will act like a camel-hair pencil”, beautifully imagining nature as artist. And the painter J.A.M. Whistler (1834-1903) believed that the work of art should emerge “the way nature produces plants.” However different in scope and attitude, these statements remind us that the Oskouei brothers’ playful pollinations of canvas, steel and cherrywood have precursors in the history of art. The garden they cultivate here is nourished by curiosity, a subtle simplicity, bordering on innocence, not by charged statements. The calm presence of their enigmatic objects asks us kindly to leave them alone, to let the quiet unfolding of something new happen without our interference.
Having long incorporated abstract and organic shapes in their work, Saman and Sasan Oskouei now take a full plunge into abstraction, albeit honoring their roots in urban culture and their ongoing exploration of our place in nature. The floral architecture they present us with serves as a potent metaphor for the resilience and adaptability of nature within the modern cityscape, but it also invites viewers to meditate on their own cohabitation with nature. In other words, the Oskouei brothers suggest we re-familiarize ourselves with nature in its urban setting, however unprepared or oblivious we may be of its beauty.
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