Julius von Bismarck Nepenthes Hybrid, 2024

The work converts large-scale plants or small trees into almost two-dimensional forms. Included are also animals or animal parts that have been pressed into the plants.

The plants presented are generally not, however, mere images of floral beauty. They also allude to the brutality inherent in the Western conception of nature, a condition reinforced inn this work by the animal parts. The perceived violence of the works’ production is an integral part of its conception and impossible to ignore. A 50-ton hydraulic press and press oven is employed to achieve the flatness before the material is attached to a thin stainless-steel plate.

Bismarck's works including pressed plants generally consists exclusively of species not native to central Europe. many of these once “exotic” plants now decorate our offices and homes. To this day, they often bear the names given them by their European “discoverers.” The loss of the original names, many of which have been forgotten or are unknown today in the Global north, testify to the ongoing process of Europe’s appropriation of nature.