Gallery: Azuma Makoto Turns Shrooms and Heavy Metals Into Art
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For "Exobiotanica," the florist and artist Azuma Makoto sent plants into the Earth's stratosphere.
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One was a 50-year-old Japanese white pine bonsai, from Makoto's personal collection, that he suspended within a cube-shaped metal frame.
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The other was a verdant bouquet of flowers. With the help of helium balloons and a team of volunteers from JP Aerospace, Makoto sent these botanicals into the air. The plants didn't return, but footage from the mission did.
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Those GoPro photos, seen here, are now on display at a New York City gallery called Chamber. They're part of a larger exhibit of Makoto's work.
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The newest series on display is "Polypore."
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Makoto collected these fossilized pieced of fungi from the woods in Japan, near where he lives and works in Tokyo. He then dipped each in gold, platinum, or copper leaf.
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The juxtaposition is stark: Polypores feed off moisture and shade, and come from the densest part of the forest. Metals might come from the ground, but we’ve long disassociated them from anything organic. Gold, silver, and copper convey wealth and status.
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This is what Makoto does best; he creates visual puns out of seemingly everyday objects, like this sofa covered in astroturf.
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Same goes for the bicycle he covered in fake grass. It's man and nature, fused together.
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Makoto’s “Botanical Bicycle” sculpture.
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The "Crystal Seedcase" series includes glass containersin shaped like seeds, like an amaryllis, a sunflower, a soybean, and an avocado. This one is the avocado.
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Each inorganic seed case is filled with real seeds. Makoto calls them "life-saving first aid kits," for the apocalypse.
