Potted Self, by Lois Keller
Oil on cotton paper, 9"x12", June 2020
-Scroll down to view the registration button-
Painting Series: POTTED VEGETABLE
(Series statement written on June 2020).
The vegetal world has been whispering to us this week, from the “Flower Flashes” on the streets of NYC by [@lewismillerdesign](https://www.instagram.com/lewismillerdesign/), to the flower add-ons to monuments by [@geoffroymottart](https://www.instagram.com/geoffroymottart/) in Belgium.
And on Monday, the breathtaking opera house in Barcelona, the Liceu, reopened its doors with a grand event: [a concert for 2,292 plants](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=rgvadprJFRc&feature=emb_title). Each seat of the theater was occupied by a potted plant. A string quartet played Puccini’s Crisantemi to the vegetable audience. The event was live-streamed and the plants were donated afterward to 2,292 health workers as thanks for being at the front line of the war on Covid-19 .
The concept behind the stunning art project in Barcelona, per the curator words, focused on merging ecological ethics and esthetics symbolizing that the only path forward is to create alliances between human and non-human identities, recognizing the interdependency between species in the new era of ecosocial compromise.
The visuals are STUNNING, and the concept is brilliant. Who could possible not be on board with the whole thing? But oh, wait until the event ends. We CRINGED! You’ll have to [watch to find out](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=rgvadprJFRc&feature=emb_title), but that ending ruined the whole thing for us. It’s so cheesy.
Maybe we should point out here that we have had our own, and truly genuine, Biocene concert. Back in 2018, we celebrated Earth Day at @orchidfeverlosangeles hosting a special vibroacoustic orchid painting immersion workshop. We collaborated with Dr. Steven J. Schwartz, an expert in bio-energy and medicinal sound frequencies, who conducted a live orchid concert using advanced biofeedback technology that interprets the bio fields of plants and translates them into music. The orchids literally played music for us as we painted them. It was as interspecies as you can imagine.
Anyhow, Monday’s brilliant project with botched ending (in our opinion) gave us the idea of using a single potted plant in our house as subject for our paintings, because a POTTED VEGETABLE is precisely how we feel during this pandemic nightmare. And yes, you may slow-clap at the analogy. The plants will most likely enjoy the spectacle.
- Signed by artist
- Unframed.
- This painting is in Los Angeles, California.
- Buyer covers packing and shipping fees: $16 if it ships within the US. $25 if it ships internationally.
