Flower Attack!
Flowers can be used in all sorts of ways in different colours, shapes and forms. It is always interesting stuff. However in Massachusetts in America flowers have been used in an art form symbolising beauty, healing and power.
As I have mentioned the artwork took place in Massachusetts, to be more precise it was the Mental Health Centre in Massachusetts. The centre has been in existence for over 90 years and was set for demolition. Artist Anna Schuleit and her team took a tour around the health centre before it was due for demolition and she didn’t like the lack of life and colour in the hallways.
As she explains, “After an initial tour of the facility she was struck not with what she saw but with what she didn’t see: the presence of life and colour. While historically a place of healing, the drab interior, worn hallways and dull paint needed a respectful infusion of hope”.
So Anna and her team decided to fill the centre with over 28,000 blooming flowers of all colours and species for a final four day public viewing. The remembrance project which was titled “Bloom” provided visitors to the viewing a time for reflection and remembrance.
Anna went on to say, “Bloom was a reflection on the healing symbolism of flowers given to the sick when they are bedridden and confined to hospital settings. As a visiting artist I had observed an astonishing absence of flowers in psychiatric setting. Here, patients receive few, if any, flowers during their stay. Bloom was created to address this absence, in the spirit of offering and transition”.
The feelings of the people who were lucky enough to see this could only have been positive. The mood enhancing effects of flowers is proven scientifically after all. This exhibit definitely falls into the flower power category.