Dead Flowers

It's become a standing joke in my family that I am only interested in dead or dying flowers, but it seems I'm in good company. This is from a current exhibition at the James Hyman Gallery in London.

At the heart of the exhibition is Anya Gallaccio's Red on Green . This spectacularly vibrant work consists of 10,000 fragrant English tea roses on a bed of their stalks placed in a rectangle on the gallery floor. Inspired by the garden of love at the Chateau Villandry in France, Gallaccio explores the symbolism of plants and colours. Initially filling the gallery with perfume and colour, as the red roses die and change from red to black, this extraordinary, romantic gesture is transformed into a contemporary vanitas: an elegy to love.

The picture above is from the gallery website and was, I guess, taken when the exhibition opened. When I visited a couple of weeks later, I took a picture (yes, I did ask first). Thanks to Blogger, I couldn't upload it at first, but here it is -

Although the flowers were rather faded, their aroma was still very strong and, as the gallery assistant commented, not entirely pleasant. Unfortunately, I won't get back to see the final decay of the flowers, as the exhibition closes next week.