Notes on the Flowers of the Soviet War Monument
Audio, fresh flowers, mixed-media stands, participatory performance, 2015.
“The flowers were not the same. The flowers held by the woman with her hair in a scarf were so highly stylised — the carving almost crude and absent-minded — that they hardly seemed like flowers at all. They looked as though they were made of ribbon, like ribbons that are awarded as competition prizes to be worn on one’s breast.”
The second in an evolving series of floral re-enactments, in which the artist isolates and stages floral scenes and gestures from art history. In this second piece, the artist recreates floral arrangements that appear on the sarcophagi of the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin's Treptower Park, placing them on custom made stands.
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An audio narrative reflecting on the differences between the bouquets on the German-language steles and the Russian-language steles of the same monument accompanies the performance.
Audience members were invited to join the artist on stage to assume poses that appear on the sarcophagi. The piece was first performed at After Care at Dock 11, Berlin, curated by Ruairí Donovan and Hana Lee Erdman.
