Acid.Flwrs
See the world in hypercolour, 2023
heat-formed acrylic frame and base, orchids
180.0 x 50.0 x 50.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

See the world in hypercolour, an installation by floral artist and founder of Acid.Flwrs, Claire Mueller, is inspired by Andy Warhol’s Self-portrait no. 9, 1986. Employing techniques that straddle science, graffiti and art, Mueller creates an ephemeral work that transforms white orchids into surreal forms. She notes that Warhol is ‘one of the masters of making us double-take on the familiar. He uses unexpected colour treatments to present new perspectives on things we think we know.’

Warhol’s self-portrait, portrays the artist in candy-coloured camouflage, utilising screen-printing to give a familiar image a striking new aspect. Using his approach as a springboard for new ideas, Mueller created an irregular mirrored ‘camouflage’ shaped support, around which the individually coloured, fresh‑cut flower stems climb. Warhol’s face and Mueller’s flowers are both distorted by colour and pattern, offering fresh perspectives on classical forms. The visual drama and contrast between the hues in Warhol’s portrait and the black background, is mirrored in Mueller’s bold experimentation and striking results.

@acid.flwrs

Aimee Pradel
Large urn of Old World Blooms – Handcrafted Hollyhocks, Foxgloves, Violets, Sweetpeas, Primulas, Tulips, Geraniums, Strawberries and Wildflowers, 2023
copper, clay, paper tape, wire, oil and acrylic paints
110.0 x 50.0 x 50.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Using her skills as a florist and painter, Melbourne-based mixed-media artist Aimee Pradel creates old-world treasures and future heirlooms from copper, paint, paper and wire. Her work for Art of Bloom was inspired by Alberr Shomaly’s, Homage to cat yamma, 1971. The fresh greens, sunny colours and cow imagery prompted memories of her early years. ‘My childhood was spent in enchanted woodland gardens in Mount Macedon which opened a strong sense of majesty and beauty in the natural world. This, together with a love of fairy tales, myths, ancient folklore and wonderful painters of old has informed my imaginal world.’

Pradel’s labour intensive work begins with large sheets of copper, which is hand-cut, embossed and shaped to create the flowers’ petals. She then hand-turns the flowers’ stem wires and twists them together before applying multiple layers of paint using fine brushstrokes. The final stages involve using a dark wash to create a patina that sits in the folds of the leaves and flowers, then binding the stems and flowers together. The poetic results capture the spirit of another time and serve as lasting reminders of the beauty and fragility of the natural world.

@aimeepradel

Alchemy Orange
Barrpan, (Grass), 2023
native and introduced grasses
250.0 x 250.0 x 70.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Shahn Stewart is a proud Yorta Yorta artist and founder of Alchemy Orange, a botanical design studio based in Naarm (Melbourne). Her interdisciplinary work, which is motivated by First Nations culture and stories, seeks to challenge ‘preconceived notions of what constitutes floral art by re‑contextualising mundane and unconventional materials, transforming them into Organic Architecture.’ Her work utilises woven sculptural forms and sustainable materials, drawing links to the past through the physicality and repetition of the weaving process.

Stewart’s installation, Barrpan, (Grass) 2023, was inspired by Anwerlarr angerr, (Big yam) 1966 by the late First Nations artist, Emily Kam Kngwarray. Stewart’s piece is made of a myriad of both native and introduced grasses woven together which she explains conjures ‘a sense of visual connection to Emily’s work.’ The intricacies and interconnectedness of the materials along with the rhythmic process of creating the work reminds her ‘of culture, of Country and of regeneration.’

@alchemyorange

Amanda Dziedzic
Super bloom, 2023
glass
approx. 60.0 x 60.0 x 60.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

The biggest influence in the work of Melbourne glass artist and co-founder of HotHaus Contemporary Glass Studio Amanda Dziedzic is nature. ‘I think plant life is fascinating. Probably the most beautiful design out there’, she explains. It is fitting then that her Art of Bloom installation was inspired by Flower obsession, by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.

Along with a passion for nature, the two artists share several other connections, including the influence of Japanese aesthetics and culture. Dziedzic’s interest was consolidated while completing a research residency in Toyko. Kusama, on the other hand, rejected many aspects of her Japanese upbringing, though her use of simplified forms, vivid colours and idiosyncratic subject matter have a strong correlation with images, forms and objects seen in contemporary Japanese popular culture. The work of both artists also shares a feeling of playful exuberance. ‘The kind of works I love to create are most often those that make you smile,’ explains Dziedzic. ‘While technically challenging they are universal in their appeal’.

Dziedzic’s Art of Bloom work, titled Super bloom, draws together these three interests: her abiding interest in Japanese art and design, her passion for colour, and her desire to inject a sense of fun in everything she creates.

@hothausglass

Azumi Ishikawa
Kokemon, 迲膠 (Moss ball series), 2023
preserved moss, leaves, branches, wire, polystyrene, paper
140.0 x 110.0 x 110.0 cm (variable) (installation)

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Contemporary ikebana artist Azumi Ishikawa grew up in her family’s home in Osaka, Japan, watching her mother, an ikebana master, create floral art using locally-sourced seasonal flowers and organic elements. This formative experience catalysed her deep appreciation for floral art and design which was developed further while working in Japan and Germany. After relocating to Australia, she established the ikebana and floral art studio ‘by Azumi’ in 2017.

Azumi’s Art of Bloom installation, Kokemon, 2023, was inspired by the Mitzar vase designed by 20th century Italian architect and designer Ettore Sottsass. Its bulbous, asymmetrical form is a postmodernism interpretation of a classical sphere-shaped vase.

Kokemon represents a distilled interpretation of a similar idea, incorporating curvilinear forms to represent those used in both classical and modern design. Azumi explains: ‘The rounded abstract and organic shapes are my way of expressing post-modernism’. The resulting installation is suggestive of a variety of organisms from tree trunks and moss-covered rocks to forest creatures. Typical of much of her work, her installation is underpinned by a feeling of restrained simplicity.

@byazumi

Everbloome
Let nature take its course, 2023
bedrock, marigolds, rock base, rendered ‘rock’, soil
700.0 x 400.0 x 400.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Let nature take its course, 2023, by Elleni Pearce and the team at Everbloome, was inspired by Michael Johnson’s abstract expressionist painting Octavia, 1987, held in the NGV Collection. A defining characteristic of Johnson’s work is its two horizontal layers. The lower third of the canvas suggests soil-like tones, while the section above is akin to a golden field of textured, vivid yellow. The composition, texture and colours in Octavia prompted Pearce to consider the earth’s inception, from the ‘birth’ of its core, to the creation of its surface in a glorious blaze of colour. The resulting work incorporates an earthy base of bedrock covered in glorious, naturally dried marigolds.

Pearce’s abiding interest in nature’s cycles includes a fascination with the fleeting lifespan of flowers. In her roles as a floral designer and Founder of Everbloome in Melbourne, she seeks to intervene in nature’s life-cycles, preserving a magical array of blooms, leaves and grasses to be appreciated for years to come. The birth and death process is effectively halted in mid‑flow, when Pearce harvests, sorts, dries and recolours each flower stem at the height of its beauty.

@everbloome

Flowers by Brett Matthew John
Planet twink, 2023
glass, mirror, expandable foam, anthuriums, orchids, 
roses, tropical foliage
300.0 x 150.0 x 150.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Brett Coles, Creative Director of Flowers by Brett Matthew John (FBMJ), creates ethereal, hyper-feminine floral art, employing a range of experimental techniques and mediums. He draws inspiration from niche popular culture references and contemporary art forms. Responding to Alicja Kwade’s large futuristic installation, WeltenLinie, 2020, which invites the viewer to question reality, space and perception, FBMJ has crafted a snapshot of a futuristic, intergalactic fantasy titled Planet twink, 2023. The work explores material transformation.

@flowersbybrettmatthewjohn

Flowers Vasette
Tactile, 2023
nylon stockings, silk, gauze, thread, metal (frame), recycled wadding, begonia, Clematis pods, spring bulbs, rosehip, roseberry, iris pods, hakea, gourds and other seasonal botanicals
270.0 x 150.0 x 250.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Floral designer and Founder of Flowers Vasette, Cherrie Miriklis and her team have created an intriguing installation for Art of Bloom inspired by Stockings, c. 1610. Made in England, the pink silk stockings form part of the NGV International Fashion and Textiles Collection. The hand-knitted hosiery, which features beautiful silver gilt embroidered birds and flowers, provided the team with a myriad of opportunities for creative inspiration. Exploring themes of origin, history, anatomy, nature, tactility and emotion, they coloured, stuffed, stretched and moulded similar fabrics to create a bulbous installation of organic‑shaped forms. Reminiscent of both body-details and flower bulbs the installation appears like a playful fusion of plant and human.

A highly respected figure in the floral design scene in Melbourne, Miriklis opened her first boutique in Brunswick Street Fitzroy in 1989 and in 2013 purchased Beechmont Garden Retreat in the Dandenong Ranges. The property supplies many of the blooms for the Flowers Vasette art, floral and event projects and also processes the green waste generated from their Melbourne businesses.

@flowersvasette

Hiromi Tango
Red moon, 赤い月, 2023
textile
45.0 x 60.0 x 60.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Red moon, 2023 by interdisciplinary Japanese-born artist Hiromi Tango, was inspired by Hair ornament, created by Minangkabau people of Sumatra, Indonesia. The delicate gold and silver hairpiece reminded Tango of Japanese kanzashi, prompting her to consider the intersections of various Asian cultures, beliefs, history and heritage. ‘Prior to adopting Islam, the Minangkabau also shared animist and Buddhist beliefs that are common in Japan, and they are one of the oldest surviving matrilineal cultures,’ she explains.

For many years, Tango rejected her traditional Japanese upbringing because she felt ‘it was synonymous with the oppression of women.’ As she grew older she sought to better understand the spiritual dimensions of wellbeing which, she explained, helped her rediscover ‘many of the practices taught to me by my grandmothers and mother.’

Red moon is a compilation of earlier pieces, with elements woven together to form a kind of dreamcatcher. With ‘the world weary from ongoing uncertainty and anxiety’, Tango imagines the feelings of dread being caught in its red web allowing us ‘to rest deeply for a while.’ She responds to collective experiences of fear by creating a safe, nurturing nest. It’s at once an homage to the traditions of the Minangkabau as it is a prayer for Mother earth and wider humanity.

@hiromitango

Kate Rohde
A floral bestiary, 2023
fibreglass, custom plinths, sealed plaster, resin,
floral elements, seasonal flowers, vases, vessels
approx. total 200.0 x 150.0 x 150.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Melbourne artist and jeweller Kate Rohde’s inspiration for Art of Bloom is the magnificent early 20th century Wisteria, table lamp, by Tiffany Studios. The subject matter resonates with her passion for intricate detailing and her personal aesthetic interest in the beauty of nature. ‘It’s one of my great joys in early October every year to walk around my neighbourhood and view the abundance of wisteria in local gardens.’

Moved by vivid colour and an ornate, riotous aesthetic, Rohde’s work A floral bestiary, takes an unbridled leap from the restrained splendour of the lamp into a Rococo wonderland. Materials and flower colours were chosen to echo those of the lamp’s brass stand and the blue, purple, pink and emerald green opalescent glass found in the lamp’s shade. Vases sit on custom steel plinths clad in coloured Perspex reference the lamp’s leadlight detailing, while adding a colourful, glowing effect.

@katerohde

Lucy Akerman X Mira Martinazzo for NGVWA
Service, 2023
materials: ceramic, porcelain, wood, cornflowers, delphiniums
180.0 x 280.0 x 180.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

For this installation, NGVWA committee member Lucy Akerman collaborates with Landscape Architect and Director of Mud Office, Mira Martinazzo to interpret the expressionist portrait of Georges Mora by Charles Blackman.

Important fixtures of the post-war art and cultural scene in Melbourne, Mora and Blackman’s friendship combined both work and play. In fact, Blackman worked as a cook in Mirka and Georges Mora’s legendary East Melbourne establishment Café Balzac. After the patrons had left Blackman would capture the spirit of the evening in drawings on butcher’s paper, the results of which led to his Alice in Wonderland series.

In their inspired reinterpretation of Blackman’s portrait, Akerman and Martinazzo use visual symbols to represent key ideas. Porcelain plates, handmade by Aria Bilu and others, denote Melbourne’s café culture. A bentwood chair is a metaphor for the Mora’s spirit of hospitality and the generosity and leadership seen in the NGVWA over a period of 60 years. And a small field of blue flowers suggests other-worldly dreamscapes seen in many of Blackman’s paintings.

@ngvwa_vic
@mudoffice
@lucy_d_green

Michael Barrett
Postcards from John, 2023
anthuriums, roses, hellebores, hydrangea, and seasonal flowers and foliage, vintage tables and containers, glass, paper, metal cutlery, chicken wire, concrete vases, paintbrushes, pencils, postcards, wooden mannequins, oriental rugs
165.0 x 165.0 x 145.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Michael Barrett is not bound by conventional design theory in his work as a gardener, plantsman, florist and garden designer. As a boy living in subtropical Brisbane, he was happiest when surrounded by nature or learning about the botanical and horticultural world from other gardeners. With a plantsman’s knowledge and a plant collector’s passion, he seeks out unusual bulbs, perennials and flowering plants to create original ephemeral designs.

For Art of Bloom Barrett was inspired by John Brack’s The Indians and the Greeks, 1974. ‘I learned that while visiting art galleries overseas in the early 1970s Brack felt that some visitors were more interested in the gift shop and postcard souvenirs than the actual exhibits in a gallery. The stylised cutlery in his work is an allegory for people viewing the artworks.’ Barrett’s installation is set around a 1970s table placed on oriental rugs. A selection of objects from Brack’s artworks are referenced, including cutlery, mannequins, pencils, paintbrushes and postcards. These items, along with Constance Spry style vases and various floral forms, create a dynamic visual dialogue which the viewer is invited to thoughtfully observe and interpret.

@michael_barrett_flowers
@cliviamangardens

Michael Strownix X Louisa Curtis
In awe of Mary, 2023
Bracken, cork branches, angel wings, dried leather fern, bunny tails, rice flowers, honesty, forest lace, straw flower, silver suede, Florida beauty, and assorted Grandiflora cluster roses, featuring an expose of 1880s stolen trinkets.
300.0 x 268.5 x 330.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Creative collaborators Michael Strownix and Louisa Curtis combine their talents for Art of Bloom, inspired by Tom Robert’s work, Mary, 1886. After examining the painting, they invented a detailed backstory to explain Mary’s melancholic gaze. Their narrative explored the idea that Mary had not only lost her husband but had become perplexed by the disappearance of prized trinkets and jewellery pieces from her personal collection. One day, while walking by a river, she discovers the nest of a bower bird sparkling with all her missing jewellery, including a precious locket containing her late husband’s hair. Mary has been wearing a flower on her heart in place of where the locket was always lovingly pinned. She becomes convinced that the bower bird is in love with her.

In response to this imagined scene Strownix and Curtis constructed a bower bird’s nest from grasses, flowers, sticks, twigs and Spanish moss. Inside the sparkling haven, brightly coloured objects and trinkets, raw linen, antique keepsakes, and Mary’s locket are all found. An old-world palette abounds of silvers and soft whites, paper daisies, pastel roses, flannel flower, and Queen Anne’s lace.

@strownix
@styledbylouisacurtis

Paper Couture
Papyrus Australis, 2023
paper, wire, metal, wood, gold leaf
Kangaroo: 155.0 x 450.0 x 158.0 cm
Emu: 150.0 x 700.0 x 133.0 cm
Xanthorrhoea: 1800.0 x 300.0 x 300.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Paper Couture founder Jo Delves-Neville’s core intention ‘is to reuse and repurpose, thus extending the life of the work and ultimately the story for which they were created.’ Her organic, papery gestures express the ephemeral quality of the natural world. ‘I tend to work site specifically, submerging myself in the unique environment to gain an insight into the finer details and correct shape and form, to then create my blooms from paper.’

Brooch, c. 1860, inspired Delves-Neville to recreate a set from a natural history museum in paper, thus eluding to the historic reference of the piece – a kangaroo and emu in three dimensions. Native flora from the national park in which her studio is set provided further creative impetus. The emu paper feathers, for example, are made in the form of serrated banksia leaves, which cascade in layers over the bird’s body. While the kangaroo is covered in watercolour paper flannel flowers. Gold leaf touches reference the gold rush when Brooch was created. Other paper plants and flowers sprawl across the floor organically. ‘Core to my business and creative practice is creating artwork from the most suitable sustainable papers to create my works from, to have a continuous cycle – made to be made again.’

@paper_couture

Rita Feldmann
Waterline, 2023
eucalyptus, hakea, acacia
approx. 200.0 x 60.0 x 60.0 cm
approx. 120.0 x 60.0 x 60.0 cm
approx. 80.0 x 50.0 x 50.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Florist, writer and sustainability advocate Rita Feldmann was born into the floral design industry. Her earliest memories include filling buckets with blooms on the family’s horse‑drawn flower cart in South Yarra and being surrounded by chrysanthemum plants on her family’s farm. An advocate for sustainable techniques and practices she founded the #nofloralfoam movement in 2017 and later the Sustainable Floristry Network (SFN) – a global organisation dedicated to promoting environmentally sound practices in the industry.

Feldmann’s creation for Art of Bloom was inspired by Forest pond, 1974 a painting by the late Fred Williams. His richly‑toned work depicts bushland meeting a large body of water, which prompted Feldmann to focus on the use of Australian native plants – eucalyptus and hakea. Playing with the idea of perspective and reflections, she created a work which features foliage falling to an imaginary water line. This connection point, where solids and liquids converge, offers the artist and viewer the opportunity to examine and consider the intelligent way in which foliage adapts to the environment.

@feldflowers

Sally Kent
Will you still love me when I’m no longer young and beautiful, 2022–23
ceramic, porcelain, gold
1070.0 to 1710.0 cm (various) x 30.0 x 30.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Melbourne-based artist Sally Kent’s installation for Art of Bloom was created in response to the late 19th century work Our Souls with Languorous Gestures by French artist Maurice Denis. The lithograph is one of a series he created to illustrate love poems he wrote for his wife, Marthe Meurier. Kent noted that there are two relationships at play in the work: the man and his wife, and the artist and muse. Depicted as highly idealised and romantic relationships, the rose in full bloom is repeated as a symbol of young love.

In response, Kent created a complex work exploring the power of heightened love and loss in human relationships. Five plinths display decorated porcelain urns, each representing a person, some of whom are bound or connected by fragile chains. Just as Denis processed, through his work, themes of mortality and bereavement when his wife died prematurely, Kent integrates symbols of death, decay and transformation in Will you still love me when I’m no longer young and beautiful. The viewer is invited to consider the meaning of relationships and to question the emphasis on youth and beauty in society and the commodification of romantic love in popular culture.

@kent.sally

Shoso Shimbo
Pyramid: seeing the invisible, 2023
steel rods, cotton threads, seasonal flowers, processed bamboo strips
120.0 x 100.0 x 100.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Ikebana specialist, teacher, writer and garden designer Shoso Shimbo PhD., has over thirty years of experience in the Japanese art of flower arrangement. He is a director of Wa Melbourne Ikebana Festival, the Vice President of the International Society of Ikebana Research and has exhibited his work extensively.

The structure and functionality of Pyramidal flower vase, c. 1690, which inspired Shimbo’s Art of Bloom work, is aligned with a common theme running through his practice – harmony with nature’s organic order. His interest in the relationship between people and nature centres around the concept that humans should be a part of the natural order rather than seek to dominate or own it.

Shimbo’s artistic response to Pyramidal flower vase, reflects his drive to distil a concept to its purest form. It is a reaction both to and against the highly detailed Baroque era design. His work demonstrates restraint, modesty and understatement, while the highly decorated 17th century vase symbolised wealth and status among the upper class in European societies of that period. The design, with claw-and-ball feet, miniature water reservoirs, frogs, cherubs, birds and animal-headed spouts, contrasts with Shimbo’s angular composition of refined simplicity.

@shoso_shimbo

Sour Sunflower
Strange world, 2023
Celosia, chicken wire
150.0 x 150.0 x 80.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

The Director of Sour Sunflower, Alyssa Trenerry, has created a striking installation for Art of Bloom which draws inspiration from Nathalie du Pasquier’s California, carpet, 1982. The distinctive shapes, colours and textures prompted Trenerry to envisage Strange World, 2023.

Du Pasquier’s work was designed under the umbrella of Memphis, Milan, an Italian design and architecture collective founded by Ettore Sottsass in the early 1980s. Their goal was to produce everyday objects and furniture in unconventional ways, using bold colours, new materials and geometric designs. The synergy between Trenerry’s work and the work of Memphis Milan can be seen in Strange world, where flowers have provided a means to express unorthodox sculptural concepts.

Trenerry chose to feature the Celosia argentea var. cristata flower due to its unusual appearance, which is created by an abnormal growth pattern called fasciation. This natural phenomenon usually results in commercially unviable flowers destined for waste. However, as Trenerry explains ‘in the case of celosia flowers and Memphis Milano, there will always be a place in our world for the strange’.

@soursunflower

Steven Gabriel Maccora
Capturing the mystery of Christ, 2023
wire, orchids, Gypsophila
180.0 x 40.0 x 40.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Floral designer Steven Gabriel Maccora’s Capturing the mystery of Christ draws inspiration from the Roman Catholic Church and Italian diaspora religious symbolism. “Growing up in a religious Italian family and attending Roman Catholic schools, I became immune to the gross portrayal of Christ’s tears of blood that I saw repeatedly in homes and churches.” The violent images created an unconscious transcript for the drama, beauty and chiaroscuro that typifies Maccora’s floral work today.

Similar qualities are seen in The mocking of Christ, a 17th‑century work by Orazio Gentileschi, found in the NGV’s Collection. Inspired by the painting’s emotional power, Maccora’s design represents a spiritual force in the form of a ghostly blood-red floral robe. The work features James Story Orchids and hand-dyed Gypsophila, woven around a chicken wire structure with a hollow centre. The cape-like sculpture, framed by a single thorny crown, hints at the spirit and suffering of Christ, while communicating the mystery and unknowns so pervasive in religious artworks, artefacts and texts.

@le_salon_aux_fleurs

Tracey Deep
Desert women, 2023
fibre, metal
180.0 x 300.0 x 260.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Floral sculptor, Tracey Deep’s work Desert Women reflects a spiritual attachment to her muse, Mother Nature. Her piece was created in response to the painting Awilyul, by the late First Nation’s artist Yannima Pirkarli Tommy Watson. Symbols of water snakes, sandhills and Women’s Country in Watson’s painting resonated with Deep, providing a catalyst for her exploration of natural forms laden with meaning, for Art of Bloom.

In Desert Women land and spirituality are intertwined. Using incandescent colour, organic textures and repetitive patterns, Deep conjures the magical Australian landscape with an emphasis on the vistas and history of the Central Desert.

Deep hopes her work will provide the viewer with a feeling for the topographical land formations found in desert Country ‘representing ancient spirits and an imagining of dreamtime storytelling.’ Created with the use of hand-woven sculptural fibres, the work has been mounted on metal plinths. She has also integrated found metal pieces and preserved Australian bush flora.

@floralsculptures

Victoria Whitelaw
Winter’s bloom, 2023
branches, flower garlands, phalaenopsis, silver suede, taxidermy fox
300.0 x 250.0 x 300.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

The two key components of Victoria Whitelaw’s high‑end floral work are elegance and sensory delight. Her passion and individualistic style have led to high profile commissions, including to create flowers for an Australian visit of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Whitelaw interprets the quiet chill of Peter Booth’s painting, Winter, 1993 with an evocative scene. Her installation mimics a snowy winter landscape typical of the artist’s native England. ‘I have chosen to replicate the simplicity of the painting’s composition in three-dimensional form with the addition of botanical elements which, to me, represent winter with their form, texture, and minimal colour palette.’ The design features bare‑branched trees dripping with white floral garlands to imitate fluttering snowflakes. The majestic trees stand amongst a dense bed of crisp white Phalaenopsis orchid blooms and velvety silver suede foliage. A lone taxidermy fox completes the scene, running through the vast wintery landscape.

@victoriawhitelaw

Vivien Hollingsworth
At the bar, 2023
seasonal flowers
approximately 120.0 x 240.0 x 100.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Vivien Hollingsworth, founder of Studio Hollingsworth in Garfield, Victoria, has a multi-disciplinary practice centred on fine art and floral design. Through her work she honours the seasons and gives voice to her preoccupation with the temporality of nature.

Hollingsworth was intrigued with the dramatised scene in John Brack’s work The Bar, 1954, which was inspired by Edouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergere. In her work, At the bar, Hollingsworth references and reinterprets the themes explored in the two paintings. ‘Rather than a literal recreation, my installation will evoke the experience of simultaneously being the viewer and the subject of the artwork.’

Each side of Hollingsworth’s installation will offer alternative reflections using tone and hues to emulate the aesthetics of the aforementioned works by Brack and Manet. Hollingsworth contrasts hard mirrored surfaces with the softness of seasonal blooms. Particular consideration is given to the colours in the work pulled from each painting, playing off the way hue is used to evoke different sensations in each work while considering the same subject matter. The material and thematic contrasts pay homage to Brack’s aesthetic – a balanced synthesis of line, colour, form, and tone.

@studio.hollingsworth

XX Flos
No more division, 2023
hydrangea, garlic flower, chrysanthemum, peonies, wire, garden plinths, chicken wire, floral foam, internal weights
210.0 x 150.0 x 120.0 cm

NGV Artwork Inspiration

Melbourne-based artist Kayla Moon of XX Flos specialises in large-scale floral design, harnessing the power of nature to create an atmosphere of openness, inclusivity, diversity and acceptance using flowers as a vehicle for discourse and personal expression.

It is in this spirit that Moon offers her artistic response to Ettore Sottsass’ Carlton room divider, 1981. The vast and vivid cascading flower beds of No more division, 2023, are like a visual meditation – somewhere for the viewer to stop, rest their mind and eyes and find a sense of peace and belonging, even if it is fleeting. Three large-scale shapes are covered in red, yellow and blue flowers referencing Sottsass’ use of block shades of colour. The bulbous bases of Moon’s forms are covered in magnificent blossoming cloaks, like a vibrant sea of detail in small and large flowers. As can be observed in Carlton room divider, line, form and negative space play important roles in the composition. They also create a feeling of ambiguity, providing the viewer with the opportunity to interpret the work in myriad ways.

@xflos__