Paolo Giardi — Portfolio — Slash Paris

YOU CAN LEARN A LOT OF THINGS FROM THE FLOWERS (2011 — 2014)

A Study on Botanical Conservation
Posed by Professional Models

The project ‘You Can Learn a Lot of Things From the Flowers’ brings back to light a forgotten collection of preserved plant specimens that was once assembled by a passionate, amateur botanist.

The true identity of this self-made man remains shrouded in mystery and all that is known is his enormous appetite for pseudo-scientific research and occultism. His interests ranged from chemistry to esotericism, astrology and the magical power of “Egyptian” amulets. Fraud, amongst others, was his main occupation.

From his studies in ecology it is possible to trace the foundation of his ideas back to the work of Carl Linnaeus, an eighteenth century Swedish botanist. In his book “Systema Naturae”, Linnaeus first attempted a revolutionary system of taxonomy based around the number of a flower’s reproductive organs, thus recognizing the sexuality of plants. As a late and devoted apostle of Linnaeus teachings, our inexperienced botanist decided to combine his research on botanical conservation with his passion for “ les jeunes filles”, young ladies photographed in seductive poses for the centrefolds of adult publications.

The result of this curious obsession is an extensive Herbarium of hybrid creatures, or what he once called the “femmes-fleur”. Created within the interception and disjunctions of the plant silhouette, what was once the recipient of the voyeur’s gaze has now become a specimen to be studied and analyzed. The male sexual projections and stereotypes are mediated and mitigated by the transformation. The plant and the object of desire: the two things brought together are equal. The botanist becomes the voyeur and vice-versa.

“Since you cannot be my wife, you shall assuredly be my tree. I will wear you for my crown… And, as eternal youth is mine, you also shall be always green, and your leaf know no decay.”

 — Apollo and Daphne in Ovid’s “Metamorphosis”.

The title of the series is borrowed from the lyrics of ’All In the Golden Afternoon’ — the scene of the talking flowers — 
in Disney’s 1951 ’Alice in Wonderland’. The project is also a tribute to the wonderful and evocative world created by Marcel Proust in his ode to youth in ’A l’Ombre des Jeunes Filles en Fleur’.

In an attempt of preserving cultural resources the artist is adopting, not only the fictitious role of the botanist, but also of the role of the conservationist concerned with the re-materialisation of an appropriated image and concept.

AURORA BOREALIS
2013

How do you make an image seductive enough so that it will draw you in.

Le Vie del Mondo was a monthly geographical/travel review published by the Italian Touring Club under slightly different headings over the years between 1924 and 1992. The publication changed its title to Le Vie d’Italia e del Mondo from 1933 to 1937, and offered themes and illustrations that were highly influenced by the fascist ideology of the time. Under the pretext of showing the picturesque diversity of customs and costumes, the wonder of nature and the beauty of artifacts, the reviews were actually proposing a perspective of the world that was west-centric, bigoted, colonial, and kept feeding to its readers ridiculous and dangerous prejudiced cliches.

The reviews were collected and bound, according to the year, in three hard cover volumes by the artist’s grandfather, Napoleone Giardi, and passed down two generations. As a child, Paolo Giardi used these books as a surface for his first attempts to draw with scribbles and doodles. As a young man their beautiful photographs were used as an endless source of reference for illustrations. As an adult he discovered their not so hidden ideological darker side.

With Aurora Borealis Paolo Giardi presents us his most personal work to date. It is a reflection on the act of seeing and its process of attraction and repulsion. It explores what draws us into something and what pushes us away, what makes a subject alluring and what is its real context. In short, this is an exercise on aesthetic and ethic.

Giardi wants the viewer to discover his grandfather’s books with his very own sense of wonder and curiosity that he felt as a child. He is adding geometrical shapes borrowed from the modernist movement, quoting contemporary artists, pasting colorful screens in order to conceal the view and obliterate any form of nostalgia. Underneath the playful doodles another reality exists, and it is not always pretty.

20 works (ongoing),Oil paint on paper, wall paper and coloured card on Arizona UV digital print on 320gr Fine Art paper, each 50×70cm