a plant is a factory

our weekly photo diaries sometimes come out of the most obscure thoughts. this week, two ideas were running around the place and smashed together to form the theme. firstly, this little nugget of wisdom from italian artist Giuseppe Penone:
 

Bronze is a material that is very close to the vegetal. It is a material that can change with the patina, it takes on the colour of the atmosphere, of the landscape; rain makes it green like vegetation. The process of casting in bronze refers back to a time when there was a strong sense of animism in things. In this ancient process, which still exists today, tree branches are often used to make the connection between different parts of the sculpture, to distribute the bronze through the work. Because of this very strong sense of equivalence of the natural object and bronze, I feel that bronze is the material to use if you want to make a permanent image of vegetal plant material.

here's an example, visually, of what he's talking about. bronze as a biological form. check out the patina on Anton Hasell's sculpture:

the second idea that was milling about the place was concerning the word 'plant'. plants are responsible for creating the atmosphere we breathe. millions and millions of years ago, plants began churning up the rocks, processing the liquids and preparing the planet for the arrival of more complex living entities, like us. and it struck me that it's no coincidence that the large factories we use to produce things are called ... 'plants'.

and so from there the camera was trained on all things vegetal, plant based and floral. there really is a small eco-system of that sort of stuff around here, so this is but a small pruned clipping from the garden, so to speak.

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