[Drop Time]

I’ve blogged about Azuma Makoto before (A boy from Cannes and a Japanese Genius in January last year) but this resonated with me today. I came to it via the Plinth et al. Facebook page – a clever and thought provoking art blog.

These videos – his [Drop Time] series – show the decay of a bouquet of flowers and then ‘rewind’ in a sort of floral reincarnation. To my mind, the first bit is gruesome and interesting and vaguely scientific while the second bit elevates it to something almost religious, or maybe a bit magical. Something profound and fairy-tale like. I bet it has really different connotations for different people – I’d love to hear what it makes you think and feel. If nothing else, it’s a welcome counterpoint to all that unrelenting *prettiness* in the flower world.

I’ve been reading a brilliant book about still life arrangements Nature Morte: Contemporary artists reinvigorate the Still-Life tradition by Micheal Petry which basically makes the gloomy point that everything dies. That still-life is about decay. Well sure, but isn’t it also about capturing a moment of *life*. Can we also enjoy that?

That apple’s going to die. Yes, but it looks tasty now.