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Indepth Arts News:
"The Seed Sounds of the Vegetative Nervous System at the Hydroponic Nectar-Lake: Installation by Gerda Steiner and Joerg Lenzlinger"
2001-04-07 until 2001-06-10
Contemporary Arts Center
Cincinnati, OH,
USA
How does your garden grow - Swiss artists Gerda Steiner and Joerg Lenzlinger transformed the Center's largest gallery into a giant garden filled with crystal flowers, artificial arrangements and live vegetation. The brilliant colors of the crystal blossoms are formed with fertilizer and salt and are growing at the CAC. The Seed Sounds … is Steiner and Lenzlinger's first exhibition together in the United States and they encourage visitors to open up their senses and dive into the smallest details. The exhibition coincides with the annual Cincinnati Flower Show taking place April 25 – 29, 2001, and Art in Bloom at the Cincinnati Art Museum May 17 – 20, 2001, in which Steiner and Lenzlinger are participating.
Steiner and Lenzlinger traveled around the Caribbean for two months to collect materials for their Cincinnati exhibition, and arrived a month prior to their opening to gather more materials locally and build their garden in the galleries. Their garden consist of three hanging flower beds and two table lakes connected by a vegetative nervous system - a web of artificial and real plants, blooming crystallizations, cables, wires, lights and speakers. The nectar of the hydroponic lakes is a fluorescent colored fertilizer solution that is transported through tubes to nourish the crystal flowers. Adding to the ambience of the exhibition are the sounds of a garden and the pulsing noises of the human body.
Steiner, formally trained as a painter, and Lenzlinger, who earned a diploma as a carpenter, have been working together since 1997. Their collaborative works have been exhibited in galleries in Switzerland, Germany, Paris, Melbourne and London. Most recently they were included in the prestigious Freie Sicht aufs Mittelmeer at Kunsthaus Zürich and had solo exhibitions at Galerie Stampa and Kunsthalle Winterthur in Switzerland. Individually, they have exhibited in locales all over the world including Japan, Norway, Ethiopia, Germany and the former Soviet state of Georgia.
The exhibition is organized by the Contemporary Arts Center and sponsored by Firstar. Additional support is provided by Pro Helvetia, the Arts Council of Switzerland, and Jones the Florist.
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