Plants are more than just dead matter

In light of the climate crisis, it would make sense to view plants as our allies; they’re the things, after all, that absorb CO2 and provide us with oxygen. The «Plant Fever» exhibit consists of three elements, and offers projects by different designers that encourage us to rethink plants. The first part of the show is called «Pflanzen als Ressourcen» («Plants as resources»), and in it we encounter familiar objects such as baskets, shoes (see the image below), or vases. The link between humans and plants is illustrated by the similarities between human and plant characteristics.

For example, take the project by Latvian designer Sarmite Polakova: a graduate of the Design Academy Eindhoven uses pine tree bark to construct a leather-like material. She then uses it to create various objects used around the home. The peeling of the tree to obtain materials shows how brutally we help ourselves to nature. The end product is an homage to the beauty of trees that also questions our careless appropriation of plants.

Even decorating our living spaces with flowers isn’t an innocent pleasure. The flower trade is subject to economic fluctuations, meaning unsold flowers usually end up in the trash. It’s this very waste that Marcin Rusak uses to create dark, enigmatic vessels the remind us of our own mortality. With time, the vessels decompose, returning to once again to soil.

The Slovenian collective Trajana also looks at our ambivalent relationship with nature in its work focused on invasive species, also called neophytes. Instead of eradicating these migrating plants and seeing them only as a threat to the native flora, the collective proposes harvesting and processing such plants (for example, the Japanese knotweed). Using this locally-available biomass, paper is created – together with institutions and supported by policy makers. This project demonstrates how important networking is. After all, even designers are dependent on other specialists’ expertise in other disciplines. The plant world has always provided inspiration for science.

We’re led to another section of the exhibition called «Pflanzen als Verbündete» («Plants as Allies»), which is based on scientific surveys and analyses of plant organisms. This research points the way to a more plant-centered approach to design. In the process, the usual division of roles begins to change: the idea is to relinquish control and let the plant do its work. How do designers collaborate with plants? What does a design process that sees them as equal partners look like?

If we sit on a chair from «Full Grown» (see image above), then we understand that the tree that produced this material did not have to die. With their tree cultures that grow into pieces of furniture, British duo Alice and Gavin Munro create a bridge between nature and art, science and horticulture, manufacture and design. Of course, based on the amount of time it takes to produce them, these objects come at a certain price; on the other hand, there is the higher perceptual value and the long period of use they permit – at least as long, ideally, as it takes for such a chair to grow.

Similarly, an installation by designer duo Formafantasma – part of the «Cambio» exhibit and on view right next to «Plant Fever» – deals with the extraction and processing of wood. With their tower-like structure of stacked Ikea stools, Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi make visible the relationship between the amount of time it takes for a tree to grow to be ready for harvest, as well as the potential storage of carbon dioxide, using seven different types of wood. The majority of trees that humans use to make furniture are felled too soon. But there’s more than just artistic ambition behind these two examples. Here at «Full Grown» it’s also about a paradigm shift in the way we think; the manifesto for plant-centered design at the end of the enlightening exhibit sums it all up. The works in the exhibit challenge us to listen to plants.

Cover picture: Helene Steiner in collaboration with Microsoft Research, Florence, 2016, © Helene Steiner and Microsoft research