PLANT MAGIC — Material Musing
You don’t need to look far for magic. We invite you to take a moment to ponder plants with us…
Impatiens Glandulifera, Karl Blossfeldt 1928
Detail of Fortune Tables
Look closely enough at a plant, and a whole world will unfurl. Look even closer, and the world as you know it might as well. Perhaps, because we are taught about photosynthesis as children, the remarkable nature of what that word means is lost to us as adults?
With their bodies plants eat light.
Sunlight
Let that sink in. Close your eyes even, and imagine the feeling of the sun on your skin.
Wu Side Table with Hornbake Sofa
Pumpkin Stems, Karl Blossfeldt 1923
A leaf or a flower, a branch or a tree… They are commonplace, these plant bodies that live all around us. They appear inert.
Yet we know that they eat light. They breath air. And we are starting to consider that they might hear. They might remember. They might communicate. They might collaborate.
Silphium Laciniatum (Rosin-Weed, Compass-Plant), Karl Blossfeldt 1915
Detail Martie Desk
With their bodies plants also offer gifts and build our world. Consider the fruit on your table, or the table itself (if it is made of wood or cork).
This is plant magic. Sunlight becomes an apple. Sunlight becomes a table.
And through that magic, or alchemy, sunlight becomes you. It becomes a part of your home, or a cherished object.
Gold earring with acorn pendant