The Secret Life of Plants
February 5 to April 3, 2004
Photography by Andrea Baldeck, Tom Baril and Frazier King
Curated by Stephen Perloff
A collection of amazing photographs that share a love of nature and an exploration of seeing, The Secret Life of Plants borrows its title from Stevie Wonder’s 1979 album Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants. Guest curator Stephen Perloff invited three artists who have devised ways of showing well-known subjects in remarkably different manners.
Few photographers are capable of bringing their viewers to look on something as familiar as a flower with such a new and fresh perspective. Using the lushness of his own photographic methods to mirror the lushness of the flower itself Tom Baril (formerly a printer for photographer Robert Mapplethorpe) intends to reveal “the underbelly, the overlooked and the under appreciated.”
For Frazier King, each orchid displays itself differently - some appear to be a dancing figure, others a prehistoric bird; some feature a tactile sensuality through veins and soft shapes, while others seem to belong to another planet. The beauty of the orchid lies in the viewer’s perception and willingness to see.
Using the camera to freeze a moment, Andrea Baldeck hopes to isolate a flower and present it to the viewer in a new light. Once familiar shapes become mysterious, stirring the imagination - it is this sense of rediscovery in simple and familiar shapes that become important.
Much like the album that inspired it, this exhibit is meant to be enjoyed on several levels, and asks the viewer to find meaning for themselves within the layers of known and unknown. A visit to The Secret Life of Plants allows for sight and insight: a prelude to the wonders that spring will soon bring.
