Vas Florum
In Paris, Carpenters Workshop Gallery presents a series of new works by Polish artist and designer Marcin Rusak.
Marcin Rusak’s artistic practice centres on the transient beauty of flowers. His family have produced and sold flowers for generations, and the artist has long considered how their value fluctuates in relation to their state of preservation. Rusak’s artworks explore the connections between beauty, permanence, and decay, embedding flowers and plants within bio-resin sculptures. Not dissimilar to paintings of flowers popularised during the 17th century Dutch Golden Age, the artist has found a way to preserve their beauty by removing them from nature and setting them within the confines of an artwork.
In a series that he terms Vas Florum, Rusak reinvents the concept of the vessel and its relationship with flowers and their display.
In each artwork, flowers are embedded in the body of the form itself. Conceived as ‘time capsules’, each bio-resin sculpture contains flowers that resonate with individual and collective memories.
Chosen species range from those that have been artificially bred for aesthetic purposes, to common ‘weeds’ that are often overlooked yet can thrive in the most inhospitable conditions.
Using natural waste material is particularly important to the artist; reclaiming plants that have fulfilled their commercial use, Rusak extends their lifecycle and gives their ephemerality renewed purpose.
Investigating how relationships and emotions, love and friendship can be embodied in inanimate objects, Marcin Rusak proposes a series of sculptural centrepieces made with tinted cast bio-resin infused with carefully selected and processed flowers. Sourced from befriended florists, private gardeners as well as various “natural” environments, the botanic matter becomes the sole bearer of meaning that guides us through narratives that range from intimate and private to pressing global matters that are commonly marked under “Anthropocene” label.
This body of work is the result of a long reflection on the symbolic and semantic potential of flowers, initiated in 2015 with the Flora collection (above). One of Marcin’s first international shows was Design Days Dubai and I was very pleased that the UK Craft Council presented him on their booth.
For Vas Florum…
I have adapted the process by taking inspiration from the material qualities of ancient Egyptian glass: the sanded finish of the sculpture takes on an enigmatic, misty appearance that blurs the flowers captured inside, emphasising their ephemeral qualities. Also, in the resulting sculptures, there is much more focus on the individual message conveyed through the considered selection of plants. With this, the pieces offer a polyphony of narratives that can be read individually or collectively, offering a glimpse to my everyday musings.”
In addition to their experimental materiality, the artist’s collections always seek to embody the most transitory aspects of life - people’s relationships with each other, with nature, their perceptions of life and death, and of their emotions - through inanimate objects that inherently symbolise the passing of time.
Vas Florum is on display until December 20th, 2023 at Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Paris.
