After the Gift is a meditation on the transitory nature of culture and the interwoven movements of humans, objects, and plants. A group of bamboo objects, displayed on wooden pedestals reminiscent of a museum display, are all woven after Karl Blossfeldt’s plant photographs published in Urformen der Kunst (Art Forms in Nature, 1928) and Wundergarten der Natur (Magic Garden of Nature, 1932).
Karl Blossfeldt, who taught at the Vereinigte Staatsschulen für Freie und Angewandte Kunst (United State’s Schools for Fine and Applied Art in Berlin), used magnified photographs of seeds, flowers, and leaves in his classes so that students could learn from the inherent architecture and design of surrounding flora and fauna. This pedagogical use of Blossfeldt’s images as design models resumes in After the Gift. Here, the baskets result from translating plant shapes and surface structures into Chinese bamboo weaving techniques. These crafted, empty containers—woven hybrid baskets—invite speculation about the “fertilizing” processes of cultural and technical transfer.
The baskets were crafted by Lailai (Liyun Zhuan)[#1-#7,#11] and Zhang Niegen [#8, #9],
(supported by the Mondrian Fonds, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Beijing, Quinshan city)
(AFTER THE GIFT, ‘Given Time’, Black Sesame at Insititute for Provocation, Beijing), # 1 - 4, woven bamboo, dimensions variable, - Blossfeldt’s Fan, HD video 25 min, color, silent
(Form/less Hejum Bä, Sascha Pohle, Whistle, 2019, Seoul, KR), baskets, # 5 - 11, woven bamboo, dimensions variable, labephone, metal bars, letter decals, vibraphone mallets, various materials, artist book, b&w, 31,5 cm x 23,5 cm
Art Forms in Nature, 1928, Berlin, [ Wasmuth ], Magic Garden of Nature, 1932, Berlin, [Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft], Karl Blossfeldt, The Complete Published Work, 2014 Cologne, [ TASCHEN ]
# 1, Page 232, Plate 104, Photogravure, Magnified 6times, Papaver, Poppy, Seed Capsule, Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Cambodia Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Greenland, India, Irak, Iran, Japan, Kazachstan, Libya, Macao, Mauretania, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Russia, Tunisia, Thailand, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Syria, Uruguay, USA, Uzbekistan, Venezuela
# 2, Page 61, Plate 1, Photogravure, Magnified 25times, Equisetum Hyemale, Dutch Rush, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Japan, Macao, Mexico, Russia, New Zealand, USA
# 3, Page 429, Plate 86, Photogravure, Magnified 20times, Conical Silene, Striped Corn Catchfly, Algeria, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, China, Europe, Iran, Israel, Macao, Morocco, New Zealand, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan
# 4, Page 77, Plate 11, Photogravure, Magnified 30times, Scabious Seed, Callistemma Brachiatum, China, Crimea, Europe, Iran, Macao, Turkey
# 5. Page 431, Plate 80, Adonis Vernalis, Yellow Pheasant's Eye, Magnified 10 x, Photogravure, Lailai (Lijun Zhuan), China, Europe, Kasachstan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea
# 6 , Page 79, Plate 12, Geum Rivale, Water Avens, Magnified 25 x, Photogravure, Lailai (Lijun Zhuan), Canada, China, Ecuador, Europe, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, USA
# 7, Page 457, Plate 101, Ruta Graveolens, Common Rue, Magnified 25 x, Photogravure, Lailai (Lijun Zhuan), Algeria, Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, China, Columbia, Ecuador, Europe, Guatemala, Iran, Krym, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, South Korea
# 8, Page 63, Plate 2, Equisetum Hyemale, Dutch Rush, Magnified 12 x, Photogravure, Zhang Niegen, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Japan, Mexico, Russia, New Zealand, South Korea, USA
# 9, Page 299, Plate 16, Larix Decidua, European Larch, Magnified 7 x, Photogravure, Zhang Niegen, Canada, China, Europe, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, USA
# 10, Page 183, Plate 75, Taraxacum Officinale, Dandelion, Magnified 8 x, Photogravure, Lailai (Lijun Zhuan), Argentinia, Armenia, Bolivia, Brazil, Buthan, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Georgia, Honduras, Japan, Jordan, Kasakhstan, Kenya, Madagasgar, Mexico, Namibia, Peru, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Takjikistan, Turkey, Uruguay, Vietnam
# 11, Page 159, Plate 59, Hyoscyamus Niger, Black Henbane, Magnified 10 x, Photogravure, Lailai (Lijun Zhuan), Azerbaijan, Canada, China Europe, India, Marocco, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, South Korea, USA
The captions in After the Gift form a kind of genealogy list that includes image sources, years and places of production, exhibition venues for the bamboo sculptures, book sources, authors, and bamboo weavers. They also name the plants and indicate the various countries where these species may have originated and migrated to—a footnote on multiple forms of belonging across national borders, shaped by climatic, cultural, or political change.
Did Karl Blossfeldt know where his photographed specimens originally came from, which plants were neophytes or archeophytes, which were considered native, foreign, or even invasive at the time? Looking at the dried plants in his photographs, they reveal fine bone-like structures without “blood.”
Macao Bienale, Advance and Retreat of Globalization
