Sketchbook drawings for ‘The Flower Cutter - Part 01.’

Our latest story is titled ‘The Flower Cutter’, and it is a ‘Part 01’.

While looking into what I have been interested in, I constantly came back to the topic of the ‘garden’.
The word ‘garden’ sometimes felt somehow boring, domestic and like an old people’s thing.
Most of all, I’ve never been a gardener.
Although I’ve always loved the subject of ‘plants’, even dreamed of becoming a botanist from the age of 6, I cannot imagine myself cultivating a ground full of living things. What I liked looking at was mostly from the perspective of biology, botany, or history of art - looking at the individual organisms or symbols created by their appearances.

Then I realised most of the places that I think of when I try to remember the most beautiful places I’ve been to, they are ‘gardens’.
From the old palaces in Seoul and Kyoto, a backyard in a city farm, a suburban café with an extraordinary choice of vegetation and an air bnb that looked ordinary from the outside but had a magnificent wonderland beyond the terrace …

If somebody chose a piece of land and planted what the person likes, it is already a form of a garden.
If somebody had that move in the heart, wanting to take care of a living thing and make it into a beautiful scenery.
Once the sprout breaks out of the hard shell, and grows on land, nothing is ever in a total control.
However, its every stage of life is going to be shared among the visitors to the garden.

That’s how I began the story.

Besides, our theme for the Pop-up Store with Galleria Department Store was ‘A Wild garden’, which I think is not a coincidence.

Photos of gardens, mostly from Olivia Laing and KRAUTKOPF. Also a drawing gifted by a child, which I am using as a bookmark :)

Photos taken by me, of Valentine’s day flowers and scenes from last spring.

I felt like I didn’t have much time to spend on the creative side of work for a while, so I decided to take time to develop it slowly.

For the ‘Part 01’, I am looking at the topic of the ‘garden’ itself, studying about how the gardeners plan out the space, and how they begin working on it.
The term ‘flower cutter’ came from Sterling Ruby’s latest show, titled ‘The Flower Cutter Rests On Dust Covered Steps’.

I thought about the paintings full of textures and the strong forces of colours when I hear the name ‘Sterling Ruby’, but from this exhibition, I was more impressed by the sculptures he made.
The ‘FP’ series definitely stood out from the others, made of bronze cast flowers and scrap wood, metal and concrete. Kyu said it looked like a shower head, I said they looked like weapons and robotised creatures.
’FP’ actually stands for ‘Flower Power’, an anti-war movement in the 1960-70s during the Vietnam War.
I also liked the ceramic works he created and named ‘Basin Theology’.

Anicka Yi’s representations of living organisms were also very impressive.

Her work looks like a blow-up version of what we see through a microscope.
Like a piece of our skin could fill the entire gallery.
Her exploration for the use of diverse medium was also interesting - such as ‘kombucha sculptures’, ‘kelp sculptures’, the robots from the ‘radiolaria’ series, and tempura flowers.
Especially the tempura flowers reminded me of my own work from the foundation at Central Saint Martins, I used to spend hours in a small studio dipping live vegetables and fruit into resin.

So here is the collection I present to you.

Instead of wellies, I created satin slippers with red crystals, enamel pumps with the heels resembling flower blossoms, platform slingback pumps made of denim and adorned with crystal studs.

I imagined walking into the garden in serenity, early in the morning, when the dewy leaves are awakening and the sunrise is still visible.
Only wearing a light, sleeveless dress made of silk satin, I would spend the entire day watching the wonders of living creatures and feeling the scent of grass and wood.