“My interest in the global cut flower market evolved over time. While studying in London, I visited the Covent Garden flower market for one of my assignments. It was there that I first encountered the giant heaps of waste flowers stacked by the entryways. These flowers could no longer be sold due to their condition, but also, they could not be taken away for free, as they belonged to the city. This contradiction between value and waste struck me, and I started to dig deeper. I would sneak in at dawn to collect what was left there, and started experimenting with the remnants, using them as raw material in my conceptual work. Researching the global cut flower market took me to the largest flower stock exchange in the Netherlands. I learned that flowers are bred in laboratories, without access to natural sunlight, and even without ever touching actual soil. They are fully controlled to meet the breeders’, the sellers’ and the consumers’ expectations. The realisation that there is not much left to nature was overwhelming, and continues to inform my artistic practice. Flowers have become a medium for conveying my thoughts about the world around us.”
The sculpture uses flowers sourced from the biggest flower trade institution – the Royal Flora Holland stock market. It is there that most cut flowers come from – sourced predominantly from the Global South, e.g. Kenia and Colombia, but also bred in Holland itself. The global cut flower industry is worth around 36.4 billion US dollars as of 2022, and 43 million flowers are said to be sold daily at Royal Flora Holland. Cut flowers are products of human engineering: their stems grow straight up to fit as many as possible in carts, their thorns are erased from their genome, and so is their scent, which in a real environment is very energy-consuming for the plant to produce. Thanks to this, plants are given a longer vase life. Their colours are also enhanced, either through cross-breeding, genetical manipulations, or simply artificial dyeing.
As an example of Marcin’s research into different preservation methods, the qualities of the flowers used in the piece have remained largely intact: one can still quite easily discern the individual species implemented in the piece, such as delphiniums, hydrangeas, limoniums, peonies, roses, tulips, small pineapple fruits and oak leaves. Some of the species have been artificially dyed by florists and are intended to discolour within the resin, providing additional painterly effects.