Luzia Simons | Vert Perpetuel

Luzia Simons achieved international recognition through a complex photographic technique she developed herself. The technique of the scanogram is a high-resolution imaging process that allows the artist to create images without a central point of view or focus that is common in photography. In this, Simons scans floral compositions down to the smallest detail and constructs a realistic image in great resolution and depth. The flowers seem to float on a deep black background, creating an immateriality and timelessness in the composition.

In her photographs, the artist takes the viewer on a journey through time, showing the economic and political influence of trade in flowers, such as tulips and chrysanthemums, throughout history. With her pictorial compositions, the artist refers, among other things, to the vanitas painting of the 17th century. She locates the series with the title Stockage in the time of the first historically documented speculative bubble, during which the Dutch traders overestimated themselves with the sale of tulip bulbs. In addition, Simons assigns the flowers a role as ambassadors in the transfer through different cultures. Luzia Simons captures the peak of beauty before the inevitable decay sets in, giving the flowers an immortal character. This is not only a reference to the beauty of flora, but also to its fragility, which can perhaps be applied to the finite nature of our world.