The Garden of Shifting Beauty

2019

Bio-plastic (polylactic acid), rubber, wooden shelf, single channel video

The Garden of Shifting Beauty is an installation of 3D-printed camellias on a minimalistic production line. Presented as sleek, exclusive collectibles, the sculptures reference the flower's associations with wealth and the mass-production of tea.  The 3D-prints undulate in their precise yet free-flowing mechanical forms, flirting with the aesthetic possibilities of technological production. Robotic fabrication has married the living with the manufactured, constructing the camellias from a bioplastic based on corn and sugarcane.

Interrogating the new forms of additive manufacturing and mechanical intuition, The Garden of Shifting Beauty details luxury items which are mass-producible yet commercially limited. Our ability to understand and question our new creative economy and how it interacts with technological globalisation and the enrichment economy is essential to shaping the future of contemporary art.